ISLAMABAD (Dunya News) - Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) leader Javed Latif said on Tuesday Nawaz Sharif was finally acquitted with the grace of Allah Almighty.
Speaking to media, he said there should be an investigation to bring to light the conspirators behind implication of Sharif in several cases.
The statement of the PML-N leader comes after the Islamabad High Court on Tuesday acquitted Nawaz Sharif in the Al-Azizia reference.
Now, as the three-time prime minister contemplates fourth term in power as premier, the only legal obstacle preventing the PML-N supremo from participating in the upcoming general elections on Feb 8 next year is his lifetime disqualification as a parliamentarian. The Supreme Court had slapped lifetime ban on Nawaz Sharif in the infamous Panama Papers case.
A two-member division bench, led by IHC Chief Justice Aamer Farooq, announced the verdict it reserved briefly after both defence and prosecution lawyers completed their arguments. Justice Miangul Hassan Aurangzeb was the other judge on the bench.
Earlier on Nov 29, the same bench acquitted Nawaz Sharif in the Avenfield reference. It also dismissed the plea filed by the National Accountability Bureau in the Flagship reference against the PML-N leader’s acquittal after the accountability watchdog withdrew it.
In December 2018, an accountability court awarded seven-year imprisonment to PML-N supremo Nawaz Sharif in the Al-Azizia Steel Mills reference, in addition to imposing a fine of 2.5 million pounds. Nawaz challenged the court decision, seeking to overturn both the imprisonment and fine imposed as part of the conviction.
The Al-Azizia reference was one of the two graft references which Nawaz Sharif was convicted in.