ISLAMABAD, 17 August 2007 — The Supreme Court’s five-member bench, headed by Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry, yesterday gave seven days to the federal government to produce documents which allowed the government to exile the Sharif brothers from Pakistan.
The Supreme Court resumed hearing a petition yesterday by former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, who is seeking to return home after seven years in exile, since he was ousted in a military coup. Sharif and Benazir Bhutto, another former prime minister in exile, are both hoping to come home and take part in elections that President Pervez Musharraf has promised will be free and fair.
The Sharif brothers had filed two separate petitions before the top court pleading for the right to return to Pakistan to participate in forthcoming general election.
The government’s top lawyer told the court that Sharif had agreed to a deal and documents spelling out its terms would be presented at the next hearing on Aug. 23. “We want to bring before the court an understanding which would show under what circumstances the petitioner and his family went abroad,” Attorney General Malik Abdul Qayyum told reporters after the hearing.
In an indication of the importance of the case, a two-member bench of the court that presided over the opening of the case last week was expanded to include five judges.
Sharif still faces corruption charges in Pakistan, as does Benazir, who left the country nearly a decade ago but also vowed to return soon.
The chief justice ordered that from Aug. 23 the top court will start regular hearing that includes cross examination of two parties. During today’s proceedings the courtroom was packed to capacity.
In 1999 a special anti-terrorist court convicted Nawaz Sharif on charges of hijacking an aircraft and passed a sentence of life imprisonment.
