Pakistan ex-pm can stand for fourth term
PAKISTAN’S supreme court has paved the way for Nawaz Sharif, the former prime minister, to run for a fourth term after scrapping lifetime bans on candidates with criminal convictions.
The court ruling sets up what had seemed an unlikely return for the political giant who was removed from the premiership in 2017, convicted on corruption charges and barred from office for life.
It comes weeks before elections in which Mr Sharif ’s Pakistan Muslim League-nawaz (PML-N) party is considered the frontrunner to win.
Mr Sharif ’s main rival, former prime minister Imran Khan, is in jail and barred from contesting for five years.
In a 6-1 majority verdict, the court said it could not enforce lifetime bans from office because it “abridges the fundamental right of citizens to contest elections and vote for a candidate of their choice”.
The 74-year-old Mr Sharif ’s change in fortunes is widely seen as reflecting better relations with Pakistan’s powerful military, which has long dictated which politicians hold high office. Once a favourite of the top brass, Mr Sharif ’s downfall in 2017 followed a scrap with the generals after he demanded they clamp down on militant groups and opposed an extension for the army chief.
Mr Khan then won the 2018 elections with the support of the military, and Mr Sharif went into exile in London after his conviction.
The tables turned in 2022, when Mr Khan himself appeared to lose the generals’ support and was ousted by a parliamentary vote of no confidence.
The military denies meddling in politics.
Mr Sharif always maintained the charges against him were politically motivated and sharply criticised the military from exile, but has reined in his attacks more recently.
Mr Sharif ’s brother, Shehbaz, who was prime minister after Mr Khan was ousted, said: “There is no longer any legal obstacle in the way of Nawaz Sharif to participate in the elections.”
Mr Khan is also attempting to contest the election and still has a large popular following, but has been hemmed in by scores of civil and criminal cases against him, which he says are politically motivated.
Bilawal Bhutto, the chairman of the Pakistan People’s Party, has hinted that the army plans to re-install Nawaz Sharif as prime minister. “We are being told that the one who became prime minister three times will now take the helm for the fourth time and get the country out of trouble, ” he said in a thinly veiled reference to Mr Sharif.