LAHORE/ISLAMABAD, 2 December 2007 — The candidacy of the brother of former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif was rejected yesterday because of pending criminal charges against him, Pakistan election authorities said. Shahbaz Sharif, president of Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) and former chief minister of Punjab province, said he would challenge the rejection in court.

The government presiding officer said Shahbaz’s bid for candidacy had been turned down after other candidates objected that he was unable to run for office, citing pending charges of murder and default on a bank loan. “In view of the objections raised by other candidates, the nomination papers of Shahbaz Sharif are rejected,” officer Ashtar Abbas said.

Shahbaz had filed his papers to seek office for a constituency in Lahore, the capital of Punjab and stronghold of the Sharif brothers. Shahbaz with his brother and their industrialist family was sent into exile in 2000, one year after Gen. Pervez Musharraf ousted then-Premier Nawaz Sharif from power in a bloodless coup. The Sharif family returned to Pakistan early this month after seven years in exile.

Nomination papers were rejected by the Election Commission in an extrajudicial killing case known as Sabza Zar case. His lawyer Kaifi said in Lahore, “the case was filed against former Punjab Chief Minister Mian Shahbaz Sharif in his absence while he was sent to Saudi Arabia by Musharraf regime. He said, to face charges Mian Shahbaz Sharif came to Lahore in 2002 but was quickly deported to Saudi Arabia.”

Two other cases against Shahbaz were also filed one by Shahid Auarkzai relating to the attack on the Supreme Court and another case of tax evasion but the court did not admit those cases to make a ground for Shahbaz’s disqualification.

Meanwhile, Shahbaz, as the president of Nawaz faction of the Muslim League has called party’s parliamentary board meeting in Islamabad today to allot party tickets to the candidates for national and provincial assemblies.

The PML is receiving thousands of applications from turncoats from PML (Q) who think their political future will be bleak if they continue supporting Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain and Chaudhry Pervez Elahi. But the PML (N) candidates have filed nomination papers from the forum of All Parties Democratic Movement, which has decided to boycott the elections.