Pakistan supreme court sacks prime minister Nawaz Sharif

* Decision follows investigation into Sharif family’s
financial dealings after Panama Papers leak last year

Pakistan’s Supreme Court on Friday disqualified prime minister
Nawaz Sharif from public office over long-running corruption
allegations, a decision that ousts him from the premiership for the
third time in a chequered political career.

“He is disqualified as a member of the parliament so he has
ceased to be holding the office of prime minister,” Justice Ejaz
Afzal Khan told the packed courtroom in Islamabad.

As the verdict was announced opposition supporters erupted in
applause, rushing into the street chanting slogans and handing out
sweets in celebration.

The decision brings to an unceremonious end Mr Sharif’s third
term in power, roughly one year before scheduled general elections
which would have seen him become the first Pakistani prime minister
to complete a full five-year term.

Most have seen their tenures cut short by the powerful military
or interference from the supreme court. Others have been ousted by
their own party, forced to resign, or been assassinated.

The court also asked the national anti-corruption bureau to
launch a further investigation into the allegations against Mr
Sharif, which stem from the Panama Papers leak last year linking
the premier’s family to lucrative offshore businesses.

The bureau has the power to arrest and bring criminal charges
against those it investigates.

The supreme court had in April declared there was “insufficient
evidence” to remove Mr Sharif over the graft allegations engulfing
his family, and ordered an investigation team to probe the
matter.

The team of civilian and military investigators found there was
a “significant disparity” between the Sharif family’s income and
lifestyle in its report, which was released to the public and
submitted to the court earlier this month.

The findings sparked an uproar, including the claim that
documents regarding Mr Sharif’s daughter Maryam Nawaz and her link
to some of the family’s London properties were “falsified” – dated
2006, but typed in Microsoft’s Calibri font, which was not released
for commercial use until 2007.

The Sharifs and their allies have consistently rejected the
claims against them, with his ruling party this month dismissing
the investigation team’s report as “trash”.

There was no immediate reaction from Mr Sharif or his family to
the court ruling.

The push against Mr Sharif has been spearheaded by
cricketer-turned-politician Imran Khan and his Pakistan
Tehreek-i-Insaf party.

“Today [the] supreme court has made a new history. I want to
thank [the] judges on behalf of the people of Pakistan because they
made the impossible possible,” party vice president Shah Mehmood
Qureshi told reporters outside the court.

Mr Sharif remains the head of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz
party and as such will oversee the nomination of his successor who
will then be rubber stamped in a parliamentary vote. The PML-N and
its coalition partners command a 209-seat majority in the 342-seat
house.

The party currently has no clear successor in place. Mr Sharif’s
daughter Maryam is his presumptive political heir but does not hold
public office, while his brother Shahbaz Sharif, the current chief
minister of Punjab province, holds only a provincial seat.

The opposition is also expected to field a candidate for the
premiership, though the nominee has almost no chance of getting
sufficient votes.

The controversy over the Sharif family’s finances erupted last
year with the publication of 11.5 million secret documents from
Panamanian law firm Mossack Fonseca documenting the offshore
dealings of many of the world’s rich and powerful.

Three of Sharif’s four children – Maryam and his sons Hasan and
Hussein – were implicated in the papers.

At the heart of the case is the legitimacy of the funds used by
the family to purchase several high-end London properties via
offshore companies.

The PML-N insists the wealth was acquired legally, through
Sharif family businesses in Pakistan and the Gulf.

Bribery and other forms of graft are endemic in Pakistan, with
the country coming in 116th place out of 176 countries ranked
according to corruption levels by Transparency International in
2017.

Mr Sharif has been ousted by graft allegations once before, when
he was sacked by the country’s then-president during the first of
his three terms as prime minister in 1993.

There is precedent for the supreme court to remove a sitting
prime minister: in 2012 then-premier Yousaf Raza Gilani was
disqualified over contempt of court charges for refusing to reopen
a corruption case against president Asif Ali Zardari.

Mr Sharif has not yet completed a term as prime minister, having
been removed in his second term by a military coup in 1999.

His ousting comes ahead of general elections due to be held by
next year, and as the civilian government appears to have reached
an uneasy detente with the military, which has ruled Pakistan for
half of its existence.

AFP

* Decision follows investigation into Sharif family’s
financial dealings after Panama Papers leak last year

Pakistan’s Supreme Court on Friday disqualified prime minister
Nawaz Sharif from public office over long-running corruption
allegations, a decision that ousts him from the premiership for the
third time in a chequered political career.

“He is disqualified as a member of the parliament so he has
ceased to be holding the office of prime minister,” Justice Ejaz
Afzal Khan told the packed courtroom in Islamabad.

As the verdict was announced opposition supporters erupted in
applause, rushing into the street chanting slogans and handing out
sweets in celebration.

The decision brings to an unceremonious end Mr Sharif’s third
term in power, roughly one year before scheduled general elections
which would have seen him become the first Pakistani prime minister
to complete a full five-year term.

Most have seen their tenures cut short by the powerful military
or interference from the supreme court. Others have been ousted by
their own party, forced to resign, or been assassinated.

The court also asked the national anti-corruption bureau to
launch a further investigation into the allegations against Mr
Sharif, which stem from the Panama Papers leak last year linking
the premier’s family to lucrative offshore businesses.

The bureau has the power to arrest and bring criminal charges
against those it investigates.

The supreme court had in April declared there was “insufficient
evidence” to remove Mr Sharif over the graft allegations engulfing
his family, and ordered an investigation team to probe the
matter.

The team of civilian and military investigators found there was
a “significant disparity” between the Sharif family’s income and
lifestyle in its report, which was released to the public and
submitted to the court earlier this month.

The findings sparked an uproar, including the claim that
documents regarding Mr Sharif’s daughter Maryam Nawaz and her link
to some of the family’s London properties were “falsified” – dated
2006, but typed in Microsoft’s Calibri font, which was not released
for commercial use until 2007.

The Sharifs and their allies have consistently rejected the
claims against them, with his ruling party this month dismissing
the investigation team’s report as “trash”.

There was no immediate reaction from Mr Sharif or his family to
the court ruling.

The push against Mr Sharif has been spearheaded by
cricketer-turned-politician Imran Khan and his Pakistan
Tehreek-i-Insaf party.

“Today [the] supreme court has made a new history. I want to
thank [the] judges on behalf of the people of Pakistan because they
made the impossible possible,” party vice president Shah Mehmood
Qureshi told reporters outside the court.

Mr Sharif remains the head of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz
party and as such will oversee the nomination of his successor who
will then be rubber stamped in a parliamentary vote. The PML-N and
its coalition partners command a 209-seat majority in the 342-seat
house.

The party currently has no clear successor in place. Mr Sharif’s
daughter Maryam is his presumptive political heir but does not hold
public office, while his brother Shahbaz Sharif, the current chief
minister of Punjab province, holds only a provincial seat.

The opposition is also expected to field a candidate for the
premiership, though the nominee has almost no chance of getting
sufficient votes.

The controversy over the Sharif family’s finances erupted last
year with the publication of 11.5 million secret documents from
Panamanian law firm Mossack Fonseca documenting the offshore
dealings of many of the world’s rich and powerful.

Three of Sharif’s four children – Maryam and his sons Hasan and
Hussein – were implicated in the papers.

At the heart of the case is the legitimacy of the funds used by
the family to purchase several high-end London properties via
offshore companies.

The PML-N insists the wealth was acquired legally, through
Sharif family businesses in Pakistan and the Gulf.

Bribery and other forms of graft are endemic in Pakistan, with
the country coming in 116th place out of 176 countries ranked
according to corruption levels by Transparency International in
2017.

Mr Sharif has been ousted by graft allegations once before, when
he was sacked by the country’s then-president during the first of
his three terms as prime minister in 1993.

There is precedent for the supreme court to remove a sitting
prime minister: in 2012 then-premier Yousaf Raza Gilani was
disqualified over contempt of court charges for refusing to reopen
a corruption case against president Asif Ali Zardari.

Mr Sharif has not yet completed a term as prime minister, having
been removed in his second term by a military coup in 1999.

His ousting comes ahead of general elections due to be held by
next year, and as the civilian government appears to have reached
an uneasy detente with the military, which has ruled Pakistan for
half of its existence.

AFP