Lahore: Former Pakistan prime minister Nawaz Sharif on Wednesday termed the graft cases against him as “hollow” and said the “real punishment” was meted out to the 250 million people of the country when he was jailed in 2018.
The 73-year-old Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) supremo made the comments a day after he was acquitted in a major corruption case, removing the last legal hurdle on his way to becoming the prime minister for a record fourth time.
Sharif was acquitted in the Al-Azizia Steel Mill corruption case by the Islamabad High Court on Tuesday.
Sharif was sentenced to seven years in jail and imposed a heavy fine by an anti-corruption court in December 2018 after he failed to convince the court that he had nothing to do with the steel mill set up by his father in 2001 in Saudi Arabia.
Addressing the PML-N’s parliamentary board in Lahore on Wednesday, Sharif said that even though he was punished individually, “the real punishment was given to the 250 million people of Pakistan.” He alleged that the sole purpose of the corruption cases was to bring down the PML-N party’s government.
Asserting that neither he nor his party seeks revenge against those who wronged him, the three-time premier said that they should be held accountable for the injustices committed against the people of Pakistan.
Sharif said the cases against him were “hollow,” the “lies have evaporated,” and the people knew the truth, Geo News reported.
“The decision announced [by the court] was a joke. Is there any remedy for such suffering,” he asked.
“An elected prime minister was disqualified for not drawing a salary from his son,” Sharif was quoted as saying in the report.
The PML-N supremo was referring to his son Hussain Nawaz, who was the administrative head of the steel mill set up when the Sharifs were living in exile in Saudi Arabia after former military ruler Pervez Musharraf toppled the government in 1999 and bundled the former first family out of the country.
With the latest acquittal in the Al-Azizia corruption case, the veteran politician who returned home from four years of self-imposed exile in London in October has been exonerated in all three cases, including the Avenfiled case, Flagship case and Al-Azizia case.
Sharif had already been acquitted in the Avenfield case, in which he was convicted in July 2018 and sentenced to 10 years in jail.
He also got relief in the Flagship corruption case in which he was declared innocent by the court in 2018, but the acquittal was challenged in the IHC by the National Accountability Bureau (NAB).
Sharif, the only Pakistani politician who became the prime minister of the coup-prone country for a record three times, returned to the country in October to lead his party in general elections scheduled on February 8, 2024.
Sharif is eyeing to become the country’s prime minister for a fourth time, according to senior leaders of his party, and to qualify to stand in elections, he needs the removal of the lifelong ban imposed on him from holding any public office.
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