After being ousted in 1993, when president Ghulam Ishaq Khan dissolved the National Assembly, Sharif served as the leader of the opposition to the government of Benazir Bhutto from 1993 to 1996. He returned to premiership after the Pakistan Muslim League (N) (PML-N) was elected in 1997, and served until his removal in 1999 by military takeover and was tried in a plane hijacking case which was argued by Barrister Ijaz Husain Batalvi, assisted by Khawaja Sultan senior Advocate, Sher Afghan Asdi and Akhtar Aly Kureshy Advocate. After prison and exile for more than a decade, he returned to politics in 2011 and led his party to victory for a third time in 2013.