Ex-Pakistani PM Sharif sentenced to 10 years for corruption

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Pakistan’s former prime minister Nawaz Sharif was sentenced in absentia to 10 years in prison by a corruption court in Islamabad on Friday, lawyers said, dealing a serious blow to his party’s troubled campaign ahead of July 25 elections.

"(Sharif) has been awarded 10 years’ imprisonment and an eight million pound (14.40 million US dollars) fine” over the purchase of high-end properties in London, defense lawyer Mohammad Aurangzeb told AFP.

Prosecution lawyer Sardar Muzaffar Abbas also said that the court had ordered the properties, in London’s exclusive Mayfair, be confiscated by the federal government.

Activists of Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) shout slogans outside the corruption court before the sentencing decision against former prime minister Nawaz Sharif in Islamabad, July 6, 2018. /VCG Photo‍

Sharif is currently in London, where his wife is receiving medical treatment for cancer.

The verdict immediately raised questions over whether he would return to Pakistan.

He was ousted as prime minister by the Supreme Court last year following a corruption investigation.

He was also banned from politics for life, handing the presidency of his ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) party over to his brother, Shahbaz, who is leading the party’s campaign ahead of Pakistan’s second-ever democratic transition of power.

A supporter of Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz, chants slogans to condemn the verdict of accountability court on an anti-corruption case against ousted prime minister Nawaz Sharif and his daughter, during a protest in Peshawar, Pakistan, July 6, 2018. /VCG Photo

The Sharif clan and their supporters have repeatedly denied the allegations of corruption, suggesting Nawaz is the victim of a conspiracy driven by the powerful military, which has ruled Pakistan for roughly half of its 70-year history.

Small protests quickly broke out in Islamabad, which was surrounded by heavy security, and in some other Pakistani cities including Multan in Punjab, the Sharif dynasty's provincial stronghold.

"We reject this decision," his brother Shahbaz Sharif told a televised press conference in Lahore shortly after the verdict, adding that "this decision will be written in black words in history."

Recent surveys show that up to 22 percent of Pakistani voters are undecided ahead of July 25.

With further serious allegations of corruption against the PML-N leadership, there is little chance of Sharif mobilizing the "sympathy factor" after the verdict to draw those voters in.

The ruling has put Sharif in a "difficult position," analyst Rasool Bukhsh Rais said.

Source(s): AFP