Pakistan apex court bans Nawaz from contesting polls

Former prime minister and the current opposition leader, Nawaz Sharif, did not get any reprieve from the Supreme Court of Pakistan as the Court on Wednesday continued his disqualification and barred him from contesting elections.

The apex court’s verdict, which could have far-reaching consequence in Pakistan’s uncertain political future and could widen the rift between Sharif and Zardari, also declared the election of Sharif’s brother, Shahbaz Sharif, the chief minister of Punjab, as null and void.

•   E-mail Article
•   Printer Friendly
•   Text-Size    

This means he will have to step down as chief minister of Pakistan’s most populous province.

This could stir up power struggle in Pakistan’s richest province of Punjab as the ruling PML-N is in alliance with the PPP.

A three-member Bench headed by Justice Musa K Leghari quashed all petitions challenging the Lahore High Court’s order disqualifying the Pakistan’s Muslim League-Nawaz, chief Nawaz Sharif from contesting elections.

The ruling Pakistani government had appealed in the apex court against the HC order, which upheld the lower court’s order, after Sharif played a key role in the formation of new government and ousting Musharraf’s allies in general election, February, last year.

A lower court in Lahore ruled last year in June that Nawaz Sharif, sacked by former president Pervez Musharraf in a 1999 bloodless coup, was ineligible to contest a by-election owing to the charge of previous criminal convictions.

Being disqualified to stand-in a by-election, Nawaz Sharif currently does not sit in any House of the Parliament; he only holds the PML (N) party chief post.