Pak ex-pm Sharif to remain in jail despite court relief
Pakistan’s Supreme Court on Monday suspended the prison sentences of former prime minister Nawaz Sharif and his daughter Maryam Nawaz in one of the corruption cases against them.
The ruling will not free Nawaz from jail as he is incarcerated in another case, but may help in his legal battles against the antig r a f t watc hdog Nat i o nal Accountability Bureau (NAB) .
The t op court upheld an Islamabad High Court verdict that had ordered the suspension of the sentence in the Avenfield corruption reference, bringing relief for the Sharif family. It said NAB has failed to provide the ground for cancellation of bail and that the high court had not exceeded its authority in granting bail to the convicts.
In July 2018, an accountability court had handed Sharif 10 years in jail for owning assets beyond known income and one year for not cooperating with NAB.
His daughter Maryam was given seven years for abetment after she was found “instrumental in concealment of the properties of her father” and one year for non-cooperation with the bureau. Nawaz's son-in-law Safdar has been given one year jail time for not cooperating with NAB, and aiding and abetting Nawaz and Maryam. HTC
ISLAMABAD :
: US President Donald Trump threatened Turkey with economic devastation if it attacks a Us-allied Kurdish militia in Syria, drawing a sharp rebuke from Ankara on Monday and reviving fears of another downturn in ties between the NATO allies.
Relations between the United States and Turkey have long been strained by Washington’s support for the Kurdish YPG, which Turkey views as an extension of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) that is waging a decades-long insurgency in Turkey.
Speaking in Riyadh, secretary of state Mike Pompeo said he did not think the threat would change plans to withdraw troops from Syria. Asked what Trump meant by economic devastation, he said: “You’ll have to ask the president. We have applied economic sanctions in many places, I assume he is speaking about those kinds of things.”
Trump said on Sunday the US was starting the military pullout from Syria that he announced in December but that it would continue to hit Islamic State fighters there. “Will attack again from existing nearby base if it reforms. Will devastate Turkey economically if they hit Kurds. Create 20 mile safe zone...likewise, do not want the Kurds to provoke Turkey,” Trump wrote on Twitter.
Turkish presidential spokesman Ibrahim Kalin said Trump should respect US alliance with Turkey, warning it’s a “fatal mistake to equate Syrian Kurds with the PKK.” REUTERS
ISTANBUL/ RIYADH