RAWALPINDI: Opposition figure Nawaz Sharif received a boost to his political comeback yesterday when a court acquitted him of misuse of a helicopter during election campaigning in the 1990s. A division bench of Lahore High Court yesterday acquitted the former prime minister of wrongdoing in acquiring a helicopter in the mid-1990s, saying he had taken it on rent for an election campaign.
A two-member bench of Judges Tariq Shamim and Saeed Ijaz declared as null and void an accountability court’s verdict holding Sharif guilty of acquiring the Russian-made Mi-8 helicopter. The court also condoned Sharif’s delay in filing his appeal.
Sharif, who heads the main opposition Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz) (PML-N) was sentenced to 14 years of imprisonment, disqualified from contesting elections for 21 years and fined Rs.20 million by a National Accountability Bureau (NAB) court.
Concluding his arguments Tuesday, Sharif’s lawyer Khawaja Haris told the court that his client didn’t own the helicopter and that it had been taken on rent for an election campaign. He said Sheikh Abdul Rahman Al-Sani of Qatar was the helicopter’s real owner.
Haris said the NAB had neither proved the helicopter’s purchase by Sharif nor did it make the real owner a witness in the case. After reading them out, Haris said the statements of the witness didn’t prove Sharif guilty in the case.
This was one of the many cases filed against Sharif after then Pakistani Army chief Gen. Pervez Musharraf overthrew him Oct. 12, 1999 in a bloodless military coup.
