ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s ousted prime minister Nawaz Sharif returned home on Thursday to face trial in an anti-corruption case he calls political revenge but which opposition leaders have termed as accountability for the rich and powerful.
Sharif, who had been in London with his wife who is undergoing cancer treatment, is due to appear in court on Friday over allegations linked to London properties the family owns, charges that could see the former premier jailed.
Allies of Sharif, who has served as prime minister twice and was toppled in a military coup in 1999, have called the proceedings a political vendetta and hinted at intervention by elements of the powerful army. Sharif, 67, denounced the process in an interview on Wednesday in London before flying home. “This case in the National Accountability Bureau is highly bogus and fake, which doesn’t have links to corruption,” he told Geo TV, comparing the process to charges laid against him after General Pervez Musharraf seized power in 1999. — AFP
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