Nawaz Sharif released from prison as Pakistan court suspends sentence
Decision follows three-time prime minister's disqualification from holding office by Supreme Court in July 2017
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Your support makes all the difference.A Pakistani court has ordered the release of jailed former prime minister Nawaz Sharif and his daughter, suspending the sentences they received from a lower court in July and prompting celebrations among supporters waiting outside.
On Wednesday, the Islamabad High Court suspended the 10-year sentence for Sharif and the seven-year term handed to his daughter, Maryam, over corrupt practices linked to his family’s ownership of upscale London flats.
“Justice has been served and I congratulate Nawaz Sharif‘s supporters,” former foreign minister Khawaja Asif, a staunch Sharif ally, said outside the courtroom where Sharif‘s supporters were seen celebrating wildly.
The Sharifs’ convictions are still under appeal with the same Islamabad High Court.
But a judge on Wednesday ruled they should be freed immediately while the case continues.
Three-time prime minister Sharif was ousted and disqualified from holding office by the Supreme Court in July 2017 and jailed earlier this year in absentia.
He was arrested on 13 July upon returning from London, where his wife was receiving treatment before her death this month.
Sharif has repeatedly called the cases against him politically motivated, suggesting collusion between the powerful military and courts to destabilise his Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) party and throw him out of power.
“The prosecution has failed to show the properties belong to Nawaz Sharif,” Justice Athar Minallah told the court.
"It also failed to prove how Maryam Nawaz should be sentenced under the same charge sheet which convicted Nawaz Sharif."
Reuters
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