Graft-tainted Pakistan’s ex-PM Nawaz Sharif allowed to contest elections

Islamabad, Dec 29 (EFE).- Pakistan’s election regulator Friday allowed ex-prime minister Nawaz Sharif to contest the Feb. 8 general elections despite questions on his eligibility to run for a public office in the wake of “life-long disqualification” by the top court.

“Nawaz Sharif’s nomination papers for NA-130 (National Assembly seat from Punjab) and for NA-15 constituency from Mansehra (Khyber Pakhtunkhwa) have been accepted by the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP),” Marriyum Aurangzeb, a spokeswoman for Sharif’s Pakistan Muslim League-N told, EFE on Friday.

However, the poll panel will display a final list of candidates on Jan. 11 after deadline to challenge the candidacy by opposing candidates has ended.

In 2018, Sharif was sentenced to 10 years in prison in a corruption case related to his family’s purchase of upscale Avenfield flats in London.

The former three-time prime minister was also sentenced to seven years in prison in a separate corruption case related to al-Azizia Steel Mills.

Following his appeals against the sentences, the Islamabad High Court suspended his both convictions recently.

In the wake of the two graft cases, he was also disqualified for running for a public office but his disqualification ended with the court’s ruling.

In 2017, the country’s Supreme Court, while hearing a case of so-called Panama Paper leaks that unearthed his offshore companies, sacked Sharif from power.

The court said Sharif lied about his wealth in his asset declaration submissions to the poll panel and was disqualified from running for a public office for life.

But during the tenure of his brother, Shehbaz Sharif as the prime minister in June, the parliament reduced the term of electoral disqualification from lifetime to five years.

Opposition parties claim the amendment to the Election Act 2017 was aimed at benefitting Sharif and was not applicable to his lifetime disqualification.

While hearing different petitions, the country’s Supreme Court has decided to take up the lifetime electoral disqualification dispute of lawmakers in January 2024.

The court will determine whether aspirants disqualified under Article 62 (1)(f) of the constitution could contest polls in light of the amendments by the Shehbaz Sharif government.

The top court will decide whether its verdict over lifetime disqualification or the amended act holds the field.

Sharif has been a leading figure in Pakistani politics for nearly three decades since his first term as prime minister from 1990 to 1993.

Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf party claims that Sharif has been given “undue relief” from the courts after he agreed to a deal with the powerful military establishment. EFE aa-ssk