Islamabad: A top court here on Thursday restored appeals of Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz supremo Nawaz Sharif against his conviction in two high-profile corruption cases, in a major relief to the former prime minister who wants to clear his name to contest the general elections expected in January.
Sharif, accompanied by his younger brother and PML-N president Shehbaz Sharif, appeared before the Islamabad High Court (IHC) for the second time since his return to Pakistan from London on October 21 after a self-exile of about four years.
A two-member division bench comprising IHC Chief Justice Aamer Farooq and Justice Miangul Hassan Aurangzeb announced the verdict, which was reserved earlier today.
The bench issued the verdict while hearing the 73-year-old three-time former prime minister’s pleas seeking protective bail in the Al-Aziza steel mill and Avenfield corruption cases and for restoring his appeals against his conviction.
“Congratulations to all of Pakistan on the restoration of justice,” his party said in a post on X, celebrating the restoration of appeals. A large number of his supporters gathered outside the court building and raised slogans in his favour.
Sharif was earlier granted a protective bail until October 24 when he appeared before the court to surrender and also filed pleas for revival of his appeals in both cases.
The court after the initial hearing had issued notice to the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) and adjourned the hearing until today.
During the hearing, the NAB prosecutor informed the court that the anti-corruption watchdog was not interested in the arrest of Sharif, while his counsel pressed for restoration of appeals. NAB also refused to oppose the plea by Sharif’s lawyers.
The court after the conclusion of the arguments reserved judgment which it announced later.
On Tuesday, the caretaker government of Pakistan’s Punjab province had suspended Sharif’s seven-year sentence in the Al-Azizia corruption case.
Sharif was convicted in the Al-Azizia Steel Mills corruption case and sentenced to seven years in jail in December 2018. Delivering the verdict, the judge had said at the time that there was concrete evidence against him in the Al-Azizia case and that he was unable to give the trail of the money used to set up the Al-Azizia steel mills in Saudi Arabia by his family in 2001 and later on the Hill Metal Establishment also in the Gulf Kingdom.
He was also convicted in July 2018 by an accountability court in the Avenfield properties case and sentenced to 10 years in jail. He was arrested and put in jail but set free after being given bail while his appeals against acquittal in the case were pending.
His daughter Maryam Nawaz was also sentenced to seven years in jail in the Avenfield case but was acquitted in September 2022 along with her husband Muhammad Safdar.
He has always denied allegations of any wrongdoing and termed his conviction orchestrated by the powerful establishment in collusion with the judiciary.
The IHC declared him a proclaimed offender in both cases in December 2020.
Sharif, who was disqualified in 2017 and later in 2018 convicted in both cases of corruption, wants to clear his name to lead his party in the general elections, which are expected in January 2024. However, no specific date has been announced by the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP).
The Pakistan People’s Party has alleged that the ECP would give the poll date once Sharif gets a clean chit from the courts in all the cases he is facing. Both the PPP and jailed former prime minister Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf party have called Sharif the ‘new ladla’ (favourite) of the military establishment.
Khans’ party said Sharif returned to the country after four years of exile because of the blessing of the military establishment which has given him assurance to make him the next prime minister.
Sharif is the only Pakistani politician who became the prime minister of the coup-prone country for a record three times.
