Pakistan’s anti-corruption court on Friday sentenced former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif to 10 years imprisonment on corruption charges related to four luxury London flats.
Sharif is now in London with his daughter, Maryam Safdar, was also convicted and sentenced to seven years in prison. Sharif failed to prove a legal source of income for buying several luxury flats in the 1990s.
Sharif was disqualified from office last year by the Supreme Court, which declared him “dishonest” for not disclosing a separate monthly income from a company owned by his son.
The Panama Papers Leak in 2015 revealed Sharif’s children had links to offshore companies, which were allegedly used to channel funds and buy foreign assets – including luxury flats in Avenfield House, on London’s Park Lane.
Timeline:
1949 – Nawaz Sharif is born in Lahore to a Kashmiri family of industrialists. He later graduates from Punjab University with a law degree.
1976 – He joins the Pakistan Muslim League (PML).
1981 – Becomes Punjab’s chief minister in 1985. The PML later split and Nawaz formed the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N).
1990 – He becomes the first elected prime minister.
1993 – Removed as Prime Minister by Pakistan’s president. He is reinstated by Supreme Court but then resigns under pressure and his party loses elections to the Pakistan People’s Party of Benazir Bhutto.
1997– He is elected Prime Minister for second time. During his term, Pakistan successfully tests nuclear weapons in response to India’s atomic programme.
1999 – Overthrown in a military coup by General Pervez Musharraf. After the coup, he was convicted of corruption and given a life sentence for hijacking over an incident when he ordered Musharraf’s plane not to land in Islamabad.
2000-2007 – Allowed to go into exile in Saudi Arabia in 2000 amid reports of a deal with the military, he was given a presidential pardon the day his family left.
2007 – Returns from exile to contest elections the next year as part of a political deal that ended Musharraf’s military rule.
2008 – Loses election to the party of Benazir Bhutto, who was assassinated ahead of the polls.
2013 – Becomes Prime Minister for the third time. The PML-N sweeps back to power in an election with a National Assembly majority along with its allies.
4 April 2016 – The leaked Panama Papers show involvement of Sharif’s family in offshore companies including two used to buy luxury homes in London.
28 October 2016 – Sharif denies any wrongdoing in the Panama Papers after Imran Khan threatens to lockdown the capital with street protests unless demands for an independent investigation are met.
2 November 2016 – Imran Khan backs down from lockdown threat after Supreme Court agrees to set up a judicial commission to probe corruption allegations against Sharif in Panama Papers leaks.
28 July 2017 – Sharif, disqualified from office by the Supreme Court, declaring him “dishonest” for not disclosing a separate monthly income from a company owned by his son.The court also orders the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) to open a criminal trial into his ownership of the London flats.
13 April 2018 – The Supreme Court bans Sharif from political office for life.
6 July 2018 – The NAB court convicts Sharif of corruption and sentences him in to 10 years in prison.
(Source : Reuters)