Lahore:
After swift relief from Pakistani courts in several corruption cases since his return from exile, former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif got another on Tuesday as the national anti-graft body closed a major corruption probe against him and his daughter Maryam Nawaz.
The development comes ahead of Pakistan's February 8 general election, where Sharif, leader of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) party, is considered the front-runner for a record fourth as prime minister.
The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) has announced that it has completed a mega corruption probe against 74-year-old Nawaz Sharif and his other family members in the Sharif Trust case.
“The NAB board today approved the closure of a corruption probe against PML-N supremo Nawaz Sharif, his daughter Maryam Nawaz Sharif and other family members in the Sharif Trust case,” a NAB spokesperson said.
The investigation against the Sharif family into the Sharif Trust case was initiated in 2000 following allegations of illegally receiving millions of rupees of funds in the Sharif Trust. Nawaz and his family members were also accused of embezzling money and creating property using the Trust's name.
Since his return in October 2023 from Britain, where he spent four years in exile, Nawaz Sharif has been acquitted in the Avenfield and Al-Azizia cases, in which he was sentenced to ten and seven years respectively.
Earlier on Monday, Nawaz became eligible to contest next month's general elections after the Supreme Court struck down a lifetime ban on lawmakers under Article 62(1)(f) of the Constitution for not being fair and were just.
Nawaz was given a life ban by the Supreme Court of Pakistan in the Panama Papers case.
He is contesting on two seats in the National Assembly: one in Lahore and the other in Mansahra.
The PML-N has hailed the Supreme Court's decision on life disqualification as a step towards restoring constitutional sanity.
“History has vindicated three-time Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and restored his honor. The lifetime disqualification provision was a tool created for one reason and one agenda to exclude Nawaz from politics forever,” PML-N spokesperson Marriyum Aurangzeb said in a statement.
“The architects of this sinister provision in the law must be held accountable for falsifying the constitution, which was the highest level of violation in the Islamic republic,” she added.
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