LHC commuted Nawaz's 2000 sentence

ISLAMABAD: Friday’s verdict of the Accountability Court No1 judge Muhammad Bashir was a Déjà vu for former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif who in July 2000 was sentenced to 14-year jail and banned from politics for 21 years by the accountability court on charges of corruption in a trial conducted in the Attock Fort.

Yesterday, Nawaz has once again been sentenced to 10 year jail in Avenfield case along with her daughter Maryum Nawaz and son-in-law Caption (R) Safdar who received seven and one year jail-term respectively

The 2000 accountability court set up by former military dictator Pervez Musharraf had ruled that “Nawaz Sharif had failed to justify the expenses made on the purchase, maintenance and operation of MI-8 helicopter, and fined him Rs20 million. He (Nawaz Sharif) is convicted under section 10 read with section 9 of the NAB Ordinance, is sentenced to rigorous imprisonment for a period of 14 years.” The case centred on a civilian helicopter, which he allegedly owned during the mid-1990s.

Judge Farrukh Latif had observed that holder of public office and leaders were expected to be honest and above board. “Nation expects that its leaders should be beyond suspicions,” said the written order of the Musharraf era accountability court. But about nine years later on June 26th, 2009 which incidentally happened to be a Friday, a division bench of the Lahore High Court, Rawalpindi Bench, set aside Sharif’s conviction in the reference of purchasing an MI-8 Russian helicopter beyond declared sources of income.

In a short order, the LHC bench had announced: “To secure the ends of justice, we condone the delay in filing the appeal. The judgment of the trial court dated July 22, 2000, whereby Mian Nawaz Sharif had been convicted and sentenced is set aside on account of:

1) Lack of evidence connecting the appellant with the commission of offence charged.

2) Gross illegalities and irregularities committed by the trial court in proceedings.

3) Glaring lapses on the part of prosecution.

The appellant stands acquitted of all the charges.”

On April 23, 2009, Nawaz had filed an appeal against his conviction.

A few months after the July 2000 verdict, Musharraf had allowed Nawaz and his family to leave Pakistan under an alleged deal brokered by Saudi Arabia. After his return to Pakistan on 25 November 2007 Sharif took part in 2008 elections as head of his own faction of Pakistan Muslim League and his party became the second largest party in parliament and remained part of the ruling coalition for few months.

All the cases of alleged corruption against Nawaz Sharif were quashed by the superior courts after his return to Pakistan.

On 7 June 2013, Sharif was sworn in as the Prime Minister of Pakistan for a record third time.