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.
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