news details |
|
|
| Sharif barred from election in Pakistan | | | Lahore | Dec 3
Pakistan: Pakistan's Election Commission decided Monday to bar Nawaz Sharif, a former prime minister and opposition leader, from the general election on Jan. 8 because of his criminal record.
"His nomination papers are rejected because of his convictions," an election official, Raja Qamaruzaman, said in this eastern city, Sharif's power base, where he registered last week to run in the election.
Sharif says the convictions secured against him after his ouster in 1999 by Pervez Musharraf, then the army chief and now the president, were politically motivated.
Sharif, who returned from seven years of exile on Nov. 25, has been threatening to boycott the election but did turn in his nomination papers. His exclusion will be seen by the opposition as the result of pressure on election officials by Musharraf to block his rival.
"I'm very clear that there is somebody else who is maneuvering things," said one of Sharif's lawyers, Imtiaz Kaifi. He said Sharif's party had not decided whether to appeal.
"This shows the election is based on rigging," said a Sharif party spokesman, Ahsan Iqbal. "General Musharraf can't face Mr. Sharif in the polling, that's why he has been denied to contest the election."
Sharif was not immediately available for comment. He arrived in Islamabad Monday for talks with another opposition leader and former prime minister, Benazir Bhutto, about the election.
Bhutto, who returned from eight years in self-exile in October, has said that her party will take part in the election, although she left open the option of joining Sharif in a boycott.
Sharif was convicted of hijacking and terrorism and sentenced to life in prison in 2000 for trying to turn away a plane carrying Musharraf, whom Sharif had just dismissed as military chief, as he returned from an overseas visit in October 1999. The incident precipitated Musharraf's coup against Sharif.
In July 2000, Sharif was convicted on a corruption charge. He was sent into exile in Saudi Arabia later that year on condition, the government says, that he stay out of politics for 10 years.
Citing financial irregularities, election officials barred Sharif's brother, Shahbaz, from running last week. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
| |
|
|
|
|
 |
|
|
