By DPA
Islamabad : A Pakistani judge Saturday refused to issue an arrest warrant for exiled opposition leader and ex-prime minister Nawaz Sharif in corruption cases, removing the last hurdle in his return to Pakistan permitted by the Supreme Court Thursday.
“The Supreme Court of Pakistan has clearly stated that Nawaz Sharif and his brother Shahbaz Sharif’s return shall not be obstructed in anyway,” Accountability Court Judge Khalid Mehommod ruled.
Sharif, now 57, was sent together with his family into exile in Saudi Arabia in 2001, two years after President Pervez Musharraf overthrew him in a bloodless military coup.
But the top court declared the expulsion illegal Friday and ruled that the ex-premier had an “inalienable right to enter and remain in country as a citizen of Pakistan”.
Sharif’s expected return could spark a massive opposition movement for the restoration of democracy, in a major blow to the military ruler who is already being jolted by rising militancy in the country and diminishing public support.
The government had re-opened the cases of corruption against Sharif earlier this month in a bid to prevent the opposition leader from returning home.
Attorney General Malik Qayuum has also warned that the government could revive his life imprisonment that was remitted after he was expelled.
Sharif, who served twice as prime minister in the 1990s, was sentenced in 2000 for treason, tax evasion and hijacking.
The hijacking charge emanated from his order to divert a plane that was carrying Musharraf back to the country from a foreign visit as army chief, just before the general took power in October 1999.
“Democracy has won, dictatorship has lost,” Sharif said while speaking to Pakistani television from London after the court’s ruling.