KARACHI, Pakistan
A court in Pakistan on Thursday rejected the anti-corruption authority’s plea for retrial of a corruption case against former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, in which he has already been convicted, a court record said.
The two-judge bench of the Islamabad High Court, led by Chief Justice Aamer Farooq, ruled that it will continue to hear Sharif’s appeal against his conviction in the Al-Azizia case on “merit.”
He adjourned the hearing of Sharif’s appeal until Dec. 12.
The case, which is related to assets beyond means, is one of the three cases that stemmed from the 2016 whistleblower Panama Papers scandal.
Sharif was sentenced to seven years in jail by an accountability court in the Al-Azizia case in December 2018.
The case accuses the three-time premier of being unable to justify the source of the funds provided to set up Al-Azizia Steel Mills and Hill Metal Establishment in Saudi Arabia.
The Islamabad High Court late last month acquitted Sharif in another corruption case related to the purchase of four luxury apartments in London.
In a related development, the court had also dismissed an appeal against Sharif’s acquittal in another corruption case known as the Flagship case, after the National Accountability Bureau withdrew its plea.
He was acquitted in the Flagship case by an anti-corruption court in December 2018.
Sharif is the country’s only premier to serve thrice – from 1990 to 1992, 1997 to 1999, and 2013 to 2017 – but could not complete even a single tenure.
Two of his governments – in 1992 and 1999 – were dismissed by then-President Ghulam Ishaq Khan and former military ruler Gen. Pervez Musharraf, respectively.
His latest spell in power ended with him losing the right to hold office for life after investigations related to the Panama Papers scandal surfaced in 2017.
However, just before its tenure ended, the outgoing parliament passed a controversial law to limit the lifetime disqualification of lawmakers to five years, clearing Sharif’s path to the ballot, slated to be held on Feb. 8 next year.
