Ex-Pakistan PM Nawaz Sharif returns to Pakistan to face jail
Ousted leader heads home from UK despite being sentenced to ten years for corruption
Former Pakistani leader Nawaz Sharif and his daughter Maryam are returning to Pakistan from the UK just days after both were handed lengthy jail sentences by an anti-corruption court.
The three-term prime minister, who was ousted from office last year, was sentenced in absentia last week to ten years in prison, after Pakistan’s National Accountability Bureau (NAB) ruled that he and his family laundered money in the 1990s to pay for luxury apartments in Park Lane, central London.
The court, in Islamabad, also sentenced Sharif’s daughter and political heir Maryam to “seven years’ imprisonment, fined the family £10m and ordered the seizure of the Avenfield properties”, reports The Guardian.
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
The former PM has accused Pakistan’s powerful security establishment of conspiring in a “judicial witch-hunt” against him and his Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) party ahead of elections on 25 July, says the BBC.
Sharif - who has been in London with his wife while she undergoes treatment for cancer - claims the military is working behind the scenes to skew the contest in favour of former cricketer Imran Khan, now leader of the main opposition party, the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI).
Meanwhile, Khan has accused Sharif of “maligning Pakistan’s institutions to save himself”.
“Adiala jail is ready for you,” Khan said before last week’s verdict, also claiming that Sharif was using his wife’s illness to “emotionally blackmail” voters.
Supporters of Sharif’s PML-N party are expected to take to the streets today, in defiance of a ban on all public rallies, to protest against the jail sentences, reports Reuters.
“The Pakistani nation and the PML-N reject this decision,” Sharif’s brother, Shahbaz Sharif, told reporters. “This is a dark chapter in the history of this country. There was no solid legal evidence in the entire case.”
Create an account with the same email registered to your subscription to unlock access.
Sign up for Today's Best Articles in your inbox
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
-
Covid four years on: have we got over the pandemic?
Today's Big Question Brits suffering from both lockdown nostalgia and collective trauma that refuses to go away
By Chas Newkey-Burden, The Week UK Published
-
Katespiracy: is the media to blame?
Talking Point Public statement about cancer diagnosis followed weeks of wild speculation and conspiracy theories
By Julia O'Driscoll, The Week UK Published
-
'Restoring life to an ancient watershed'
Today's Newspapers A roundup of the headlines from the US front pages
By The Week Staff Published
-
Puffed rice and yoga: inside the collapsed tunnel where Indian workers await rescue
Speed Read Workers trapped in collapsed tunnel are suffering from dysentery and anxiety over their rescue
By Sorcha Bradley, The Week UK Published
-
Gaza hospital blast: What the video evidence shows about who's to blame
Speed Read Nobody wants to take responsibility for the deadly explosion in the courtyard of Gaza's al-Ahli Hospital. Roll the tape.
By Peter Weber, The Week US Published
-
Giraffe poo seized after woman wanted to use it to make a necklace
Tall Tales And other stories from the stranger side of life
By Chas Newkey-Burden, The Week UK Published
-
Helicopter sound arouses crocodiles
Tall Tales And other stories from the stranger side of life
By Chas Newkey-Burden, The Week UK Published
-
Woman sues Disney over 'injurious wedgie'
Tall Tales And other stories from the stranger side of life
By Chas Newkey-Burden, The Week UK Published
-
Emotional support alligator turned away from baseball stadium
Tall Tales And other stories from the stranger side of life
By Chas Newkey-Burden, The Week UK Published
-
Europe's oldest shoes found in Spanish caves
Tall Tales And other stories from the stranger side of life
By Chas Newkey-Burden, The Week UK Published
-
Artworks stolen by Nazis returned to heirs of cabaret performer
It wasn't all bad Good news stories from the past seven days
By The Week Staff Published