ISLAMABAD: A trial court in Islamabad on Friday has sentenced former Prime Minister Mian Mohammed Nawaz Sharif 10 years in imprisonment, eight million pound sterling fine and confiscation of their Avenfield Apartments property in the UK.
Former Prime Minister’s daughter Mariam Nawaz has been sentenced for seven years and two million pounds sterling fine and her husband Capt Rtd Safdar got one-year imprisonment.
Mohammed Bashir, the Judge of Accountability Court, the trial court in this high profile political corruption case in the history of Pakistan, while announcing the judgement said the convicted will have ten days to appeal the judgement. The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) in light of the Court’s decision has issued warrants to arrest Capt Retd Safdar from his home constituency in Abbottabad where he is leading his campaign for the general elections set for July 25th, 2018.
Ms Mariam Nawaz and Capt Safdar have been barred from the politics for ten years, the judgment says.
Former Prime Minister Mian Mohammed Nawaz Sharif, Mariam Safdar and Capt Safdar had appeared at least 109 times in the past nine months proceedings at the trial court in Islamabad following the supreme court’s decision in the corruption case by unseating of the then sitting Prime Minister and PML-N political party Chief, Mian Mohammed Nawaz Sharif.
The much-anticipated in NAB Court’s decision was rejected by the former Chief Minister of the Punjab Mian Shahbaz Sharif and the PML-N Chief and said that he would plead the case of the innocence of Mian Nawaz Sharif during the Muslim League election campaign to win over the hearts of people to get back into power.
Mian Nawaz Sharif, the most powerful prime minister in the recent parliamentary history of the country, perhaps has become the victim of his party’s wrong policy of ‘to be or not to be’ when corruption charges surfaced after the Panama Case scandal which claimed many political casualties in global politics.
According to legal experts had Mian Nawaz Sharif and his family act correctly to pursue the legal case, the result in Avenfield apartments could have been different. Means no conviction in the Supreme Court and no conviction in the trial court but the pride of absolute power had pushed the ruling party into a total disarray in the past one year. The example of PPP corruption and Asif Zardari is in front of us where the PPP leader had evaded the legal system by contesting their cases for 11 years and got clean chit on their millions of dollars properties in Pakistan and abroad.
Some legal experts termed the sentence by the trial court too lenient and demanded the prosecution to go for appeal and get their imprisonment to 14 years and also confiscation of Jati Umra, a palace built by Mian Mohammed Nawaz Sharif and his family by exploiting their positions and many corruption cases are still pending in the courts of law.
Pakistan as a state is facing challenges on the economic front, thanks to the economic mayhem and pilling up billions of dollars loans which grew astronomically during the tenure of Mian Nawaz Sharif’s Government will have a huge toll on the outcome of results of the general elections on July 25th, 2018.
The energy and water crises will be few but the immediate challenges to be faced by the newly elected government in few weeks time but the accountability which has just kicked off in Pakistan with the conviction of the former prime minister will have a positive impact on the future governance of the country.
PTI led by former Cricket skipper, Imran Khan has gained popularity and is becoming one the political realities emerging on political horizons of Pakistan. At this stage, two sons of Mian Nawaz Sharif, Hassan Nawaz and Hussein Nawaz and his close confidant and former Finance Minister Ishaq Dar are declared absconders wanted by the Courts in corruption cases.
