INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
Nawaz Sharif resigned in July after the Supreme Court disqualified him from holding officeIslamabad: A Pakistani court is due to rule on
Friday in an anti-corruption case against ousted Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and his daughter over the ownership of luxurious London
properties that could see the former leader jailed if found guilty.The decision, due weeks before the country heads to the polls on July 25,
is expected at a time of intensifying allegations of military meddling in politics and media claims that the press is being muzzled.Nawaz
Sharif has a history of differences with the military, which has ruled the nuclear-armed country for almost half of its history, and ousted
him from power in 1999 in a bloodless coup.Sharif, who denies wrongdoing, on Wednesday appealed to the courts to delay the judgment while he
is in London tending his wife, who is being treated for cancer.Since his removal by the Supreme Court in July 2017, Sharif has argued that
the military establishment, aided by top members of the judiciary, is using a series of cases against him and others in his party to tip the
scales in favour of cricketer-turned-politician Imran Khan.The court case centres on upscale London flats that the Sharifs say they bought
But the National Accountability Bureau has alleged the family has been unable to explain how it paid for them.Sharif, 67, resigned in July
after the Supreme Court disqualified him from holding office over an undeclared source of income, but the veteran leader maintains his grip
on the ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) party.Khan is running on a socially conservative, anti-corruption platform
He denies colluding with the military establishment and praises the disqualifications and prosecutions of PML-N figures as a long-needed
crackdown on graft.Last month, former Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi was barred from running in his home constitutency by the election
The ban was later overturned."Pakistan's history in terms of using state institutions to manage political processes is well known," Daniyal
Aziz, a former privatisation minister who was last month disqualified from politics for five years, told Reuters."The hope and prayer were
that we had moved beyond that, and the facts are before you."PML-N officials also accuse the military of using its muscle to twist the arm
of the media, as TV channels at times mute the Sharif and his allies if they criticize the judiciary or the military
Newspapers have also omitted Sharif's comments on those topics.Sharif's younger brother, Shehbaz Sharif, who has taken over the PML-N
leadership, said on Thursday the recent actions by the anti-graft body put the election process in doubt."All political parties must be
given a level playing field," he tweeted.© Thomson Reuters 2018(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by
TheIndianSubcontinent staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
