Three-time former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif was re-elected “unopposed” as the president of the ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) party here on Tuesday, six years after losing the post following a Supreme Court ruling in the Panama Papers case.

The 74-year-old veteran politician, who returned to Pakistan in October last year after a four-year self-imposed exile in the UK, was elected at the General Council meeting of the PML-N in Lahore, his party said in a post on X.

Earlier, his party while sharing a video of preparations for the General Council meeting, had said: “Lion is returning to take his rightful place at the top.”

The PML-N had earlier announced convening the general council meeting on May 11 but it was postponed to coincide with the celebration of 26 years of Pakistan becoming a nuclear power, Dawn newspaper reported. Sharif was the Prime Minister when Pakistan conducted six nuclear tests on May 28, 1998.

PML-N Punjab president Rana Sanaullah had hinted that the elder Sharif would be elected without a contest.

When asked why the party didn’t adopt a democratic process to vote for a new president, Sanaullah said the party was a “servant of power corridors and it was Nawaz Sharif who made it a party of the public”. He added that after Quaid-i-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah, it was Nawaz Sharif who “made the party vibrant”.

Replying to another question on why Nawaz Sharif wasn’t active in politics after the February 8 general elections, Sanaullah said the former PM is not angry with anyone and he is active in the party. “All major decisions of the party and government are taken by him,” he added.

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif had earlier this month resigned as the PML-N president citing the “unjust” disqualification of the party supremo Nawaz Sharif from the PM office.