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26 May 2009 ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s Supreme Court
yesterday lifted a ban on contesting elections on
two-time Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and his brother
Shahbaz.
A five-member bench of the court, headed by Justice
Tassaduq Hussain Jilani, set aside an earlier ruling
of the same court disqualifying the brothers from
contesting elections on grounds of conviction in
separate cases. The court delivered the verdict
yesterday on appeals from the Sharifs against the Feb.
25 ruling by former Chief Justice Abdul Hamid Dogar.
The ruling means Sharif, the country’s most popular
politician according to polls, is free to contest
national elections in 2013 or could be elected to
Parliament in a by-election.
“I would like to salute the people of Pakistan again
because they, with great effort and struggle, fought
for the independence of the judiciary,” Sharif told
reporters minutes after the Supreme Court verdict. “I
would like to thank God Almighty.” The court ruling is
welcomed by the entire nation, Sharif said in the
eastern city of Lahore. “Today an independent
judiciary is giving independent decisions.”
Sharif, who heads the second largest party in the
country — Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz) — has said he
has no desire to destabilize the government or
campaign for early elections.
President Asif Ali Zardari of the Pakistan People’s
Party welcomed the court ruling, saying in a statement
he hoped Sharif’s party would play “a greater role in
strengthening democracy.”
Sharif said his party, which came second in a February
2008 general election, would decide if and when he
would contest a by-election.
Both brothers were unable to contest the 2008
election, although Shahbaz did later win a by-election
for a provincial assembly seat in Punjab. He later
became chief minister of the country’s most prosperous
and politically important province of Punjab. But his
election was later nullified and the election bar on
Nawaz Sharif upheld, plunging the country into a
political crisis.
The crisis was defused in March when Zardari gave in
to an opposition demand, championed by the Sharifs,
for the reinstatement of the country’s top judge, who
had been dismissed by former President Pervez
Musharraf in late 2007, and Shahbaz Sharif was
restored as Punjab’s chief minister.
Despite that, the uncertainty over the Sharifs’
eligibility for elections had lingered until
yesterday’s court ruling.
EsinIslam.Com
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