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Can Nawaz Sharif’s disqualification be overturned?

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Can Nawaz Sharif’s disqualification be overturned?
Can Nawaz Sharif’s disqualification be overturned?

Can Nawaz Sharif’s disqualification be overturned?

The Panama Papers case was a landmark decision by the Supreme Court of Pakistan that disqualified the former Prime Minister of Pakistan, Nawaz Sharif, from holding public office for life. In December 2018, he was sentenced to around 10 years in jail on charges of corruption related to luxury London flats. However, according to media reports, Nawaz has been issued a diplomatic passport recently by the PML-N led coalition government. It is being speculated that he might end his self-exile in London and return to the country in December to lead his party in the next general election. This week, Bol News talks to four leading lawyers on whether Nawaz Sharif’s conviction and disqualification can be overturned.

Anwar Mansoor

Senior Advocate Supreme Court of Pakistan

Technically, conviction is an appeal before the high court, and the judgement that was rendered earlier in which he was convicted was incorrectly done; therefore, yes, it can be overturned. There are two possibilities: one is for him to be remanded back for a fresh trial, or it could be overturned absolutely because both the high court and the Supreme Court have the right to overturn the conviction.

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Speaking of the diplomatic passport being issued to him, I am very clear on it: it should be issued only to the president, prime minister, and ambassadors. All these people are nominated under the rule. Now, him being given the diplomatic passport is totally contrary to the law and the rules that have been set. The rules have not been modified at all. So I would say that this was given in clear violation of the law. Moreover, if Maryam Nawaz’s conviction has been overturned, that does not mean that Nawaz Sharif’s conviction can also be overturned. That is an independent case that has to be looked into on the basis of the evidence that has been produced in relation to Nawaz, not Maryam.

The conviction of Maryam was based on an incorrect crime that was on the paper; hence, I would not say that judgement would be a reason for setting aside the conviction. As far as Nawaz is concerned, he has categorically said in more than one place that he owns the properties, his sources of money are there, etc. So the authorities will have to look into all those aspects, which were not true for Maryam because her case was totally different.

As far as Nawaz’s case is concerned, the conviction by a court of law on a crime is different from him not being Sadiq and Ameen. They are two aspects altogether, and they cannot be combined together. Moreover, the Supreme Court’s decision is still pending; I do not know when that review will be taken up, so let us see what happens.

Irfan Qadir

Former Attorney General of Pakistan

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Yes, absolutely, it can be overturned. When I conducted Maryam Nawaz’s case for the first time and when I studied the whole case, my immediate impressions were that this is a case of acquittal and she will be acquitted. After that, my argument started in the Islamabad High Court.

An application was filed under Section 561-A, and this section’s application can be given at any stage if you feel that the process of the court is being abused. So in short, there was absolutely no evidence against Maryam that she was the beneficial owner of these properties. When I concluded my arguments, NAB changed three lawyers, and then they brought a fourth lawyer; however, they could not respond to the questions that I raised or the flaws that I pointed out in the accountability court judgment. So Nawaz Sharif’s case was no different from this. She did not even accept the trust deed and called it fake and forged.

So I argued that everything she said is false, and even if we assume that the trust deed is fake, Maryam would not ipso facto become the beneficial owner simply because she has not been able to disprove the prosecution’s case, because it is the prosecution’s responsibility to prove its own case first, not the defense’s. And it is laid down in the evidence with clarity that a fact that is neither proved nor disproved is a fact not proved. Therefore, the court got stuck on that note. When they were repeatedly asked to bring evidence of the beneficial owner, they had no evidence, and the case against Calibri was also proven wrong.

There is no denying the fact that the properties do belong to them. But where did they come from? They came from Mian Sharif, who was a rich man who passed away, and it was a trial of Mian Sharif’s grave, which was also one of my arguments. And this is the basic rule of law that you cannot try a dead man; hence, the court has no choice but to acquit Maryam, and similarly, Nawaz will also be acquitted when he returns to Pakistan.

Shah Khawar advocate

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Former LHC judge and Former AGP

Yes, it could only be possible if the appeal against the conviction and sentence, which is pending in the Islamabad High Court, is allowed, the judgement passed by the accountability court is set aside, and he is acquitted. If that is the case, he could not only be released from prison, but he would also be able to contest elections.

However, the disqualification that has been announced by the Supreme Court of Pakistan will still remain on his bail because it was done via Article 62-1F, and in that clause, the disqualification is forever. Yes, his conviction will be overturned until and unless the law is changed and that specific section is amended, but his disqualification will remain the same. On the other hand, him being issued a diplomatic passport is quite unusual because a person who has been declared a proclaimed offender and absconder by a competent court of law has all his or her legal rights suspended that very moment until he or she appears in the competent court and surrenders himself.

In that case, the diplomatic passport is highly questionable. Although Maryam Nawaz has been acquitted, Nawaz Sharif’s appeal is still pending in the high court, and his case and the charges against him will be seen separately. Maybe Maryam’s acquittal will have a positive effect on Nawaz’s case, but that is just a possibility.

I cannot say whether Nawaz Sharif is coming back in December or not; that can only be known by the Pakistan Muslim League, Nawaz’s people, but whenever he comes, he will be taken into custody. We cannot say that he will be acquitted because his appeal is still pending in the high court, and the high court has observed after declaring him a proclaimed offender that whenever he comes, he will either surrender before the court or he will be arrested, and then his appeal will be separately adjudicated.

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Raja Amir Abbas advocate

Former NAB prosecutor

As far as the conviction is concerned, that is in the upper level court. Although his appeal has been dismissed in the Islamabad High Court for non-appearance, there was a pact that was available that stated that whenever he comes back and convinces the court that his non-appearance was due to certain reasons and the court agrees with those plausible reasons, then that appeal can be heard.

The NAB laws have been completely amended in order to facilitate these mega cases, particularly Nawaz Sharif’s case that the properties that were in his children’s names were actually his properties. However, now that the laws have been amended and the definition of “Benami” transactions has been changed, it is also a law that the properties of children cannot be inquired about from the father. Another significant change in the law is the burden of proof, which was previously on the accused (the public office holder) to prove where he obtained these properties and the source of the income.

But now it has been reversed and shifted towards the prosecution, in which they have to prove that the properties that were acquired by Mian Nawaz Sharif were obtained through any specific instance of corruption, and they have to give evidence, which obviously in a white collar crime is impossible to prove. So under the circumstances of the amended laws, if they are not overturned and declared ultraviolet to the constitution by the supreme court, as these amendments have already been challenged by the supreme court, otherwise, if they are not overturned and if they are not declared void, then in the prevailing amended NAB law ordinance, Mian Nawaz will have an almost 100 per cent case of acquittal. Things like these only happen in Pakistan because in other countries, when there are even some charges of corruption against a public office holder who happens to be a prime minister, he would resign and give back his diplomatic passport, but over here we have issued a legal diplomatic passport to an absconder.

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