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Pakistan high court acquits ex-PM Sharif of hijacking, allows him to run for office

By Bernard Hibbitts (editor) and University of Pittsburgh School of Law students.

[JURIST] The Supreme Court of Pakistan on Friday acquitted opposition leader Nawaz Sharif on charges of hijacking a plane carrying General Pervez Musharraf in 1999. The conviction had barred Sharif from running for office, although the court lifted the ban in May. It was alleged that then-prime minister Sharif ordered Musharraf's return flight to the country not to be permitted to land and to be diverted to another country after replacing him as chief of the Army Staff. The order came during a coup against Sharif that ultimately succeeded. The country's anti-terrorism court in 2000 acquitted all of the defendants in the case except Sharif. The Supreme Court ruled that, "looking at the case from any angle," hijacking or terrorism charges do not stand against Sharif. After his conviction, the ruling was suspended after Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari petitioned the court to review the decision. Earlier this year, Sharif and the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) led a protest march against Zardari and his Pakistan People's Party (PPP) as part of the Pakistan lawyers' movement. In March, Zardari formed a parliamentary committee to review key terms of the Pakistani Constitution, and reinstated Supreme Court chief justice Iftikhar Mohammed Chaudhry, who was ousted in 2007 after then-president Musharraf declared a state of emergency rule.

Full post as published by JURIST - The Paper Chase on July 17, 2009 (boomark / email).