A Pakistani court yesterday issued arrest warrants for former Pakistani prime minister Nawaz Sharif in two cases of corruption spiraling from the Panama Papers leak, his lawyers said.
Sharif is in London with his wife, Kalsum, as she undergoes cancer treatment, and has not returned to Pakistan since he was indicted in the corruption allegations earlier this month, despite reports he would do so.
“The accountability court issued bailable warrants for the former prime minister in two cases of alleged corruption today and adjourned [the] hearing until Nov. 3,” one of Sharif’s defense lawyers, Zafir Khan, told reporters.
In late July, the Pakistani Supreme Court dismissed Sharif following an investigation into corruption allegations against his family, making him the 15th prime minister in Pakistan’s 70-year history to be ousted before completing a full term.
The claims against the prime minister stemmed from last year’s Panama Papers leak, which sparked a media frenzy over the luxurious lifestyles and high-end London property portfolio owned by his family.
Members of Sharif’s eponymous ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz have doggedly stuck behind their leader, but as the legal pressure builds, cracks are beginning to appear in their unity ahead of general elections due to be held sometime next year.
Pakistani Minister for Inter Provincial Coordination Riaz Pirzada became the most high-profile voice of dissent to speak out publicly last week, when he called for Sharif’s younger brother, Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif, to take over the party leadership.
“We don’t object to Nawaz’s leadership, but we are concerned how the party will win the next elections,” Pirzada said, as he repeated his call this week to Pakistan’s Geo News.
The Supreme Court’s ruling also banned Nawaz Sharif from political office. In the days after his ouster, he swiftly named a replacement, Pakistani Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, and designated Shahbaz Sharif as his eventual successor.
However, there has been no move toward securing a federal seat for the provincial minister, which would then open up elections for the leadership of Punjab, the Sharif dynasty’s power base.
Instead, Nawaz Sharif last month fielded his cancer-stricken wife in a by-election to fill his old seat in Lahore.
She won the vote, seen as a key test of his party’s popularity after Sharif’s ousting and ahead of the general election, but the party’s soul-searching continues as it seeks a way forward.
“There is a very visible split in the party, which has clearly been divided into two groups” behind each brother, political analyst Rasul Bukhsh Raees told reporters.
Nawaz Sharif has faced — and come back from — similar challenges in the past.
In 1993 he was dismissed from his first term as prime minister for corruption, while in 1999 he was sentenced to life in prison after his second term in office ended with a military putsch.
Following the coup, he was allowed to go into exile in Saudi Arabia, returning in 2007 before becoming prime minister for a third time in 2013.
Republican US lawmakers on Friday criticized US President Joe Biden’s administration after sanctioned Chinese telecoms equipment giant Huawei unveiled a laptop this week powered by an Intel artificial intelligence (AI) chip. The US placed Huawei on a trade restriction list in 2019 for contravening Iran sanctions, part of a broader effort to hobble Beijing’s technological advances. Placement on the list means the company’s suppliers have to seek a special, difficult-to-obtain license before shipping to it. One such license, issued by then-US president Donald Trump’s administration, has allowed Intel to ship central processors to Huawei for use in laptops since 2020. China hardliners
Conjoined twins Lori and George Schappell, who pursued separate careers, interests and relationships during lives that defied medical expectations, died this month in Pennsylvania, funeral home officials said. They were 62. The twins, listed by Guinness World Records as the oldest living conjoined twins, died on April 7 at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, obituaries posted by Leibensperger Funeral Homes of Hamburg said. The cause of death was not detailed. “When we were born, the doctors didn’t think we’d make 30, but we proved them wrong,” Lori said in an interview when they turned 50, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported. The
RAMPAGE: A Palestinian man was left dead after dozens of Israeli settlers searching for a missing 14-year-old boy stormed a village in the Israeli-occupied West Bank US President Joe Biden on Friday said he expected Iran to attack Israel “sooner, rather than later” and warned Tehran not to proceed. Asked by reporters about his message to Iran, Biden simply said: “Don’t,” underscoring Washington’s commitment to defend Israel. “We are devoted to the defense of Israel. We will support Israel. We will help defend Israel and Iran will not succeed,” he said. Biden said he would not divulge secure information, but said his expectation was that an attack could come “sooner, rather than later.” Israel braced on Friday for an attack by Iran or its proxies as warnings grew of
A prominent Christian leader has allegedly been stabbed at the altar during a Mass yesterday in southwest Sydney. Bishop Mar Mari Emmanuel was saying Mass at Christ The Good Shepherd Church in Wakeley just after 7pm when a man approached him at the altar and allegedly stabbed toward his head multiple times. A live stream of the Mass shows the congregation swarm forward toward Emmanuel before it was cut off. The church leader gained prominence during the COVID-19 pandemic, amassing a large online following, Officers attached to Fairfield City police area command attended a location on Welcome Street, Wakeley following reports a number