ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s former prime minister Nawaz Sharif attended an anti-corruption trial on Friday ordered by the country’s Supreme Court when it removed him from office earlier this year.
Sharif, 67, arrived at the court with his daughter, Maryam, who is also on trial over the family’s wealth and financial dealings.
The family has called the case a political conspiracy but opposition leaders who pushed it before the courts have hailed it as accountability for the rich and powerful.
The charges in the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) court are linked to London properties the family owns that were revealed in the 2016 Panama Papers leaks involving offshore companies owned by prominent international figures.
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.
The Supreme Court disqualified Sharif from office in July over unreported sources of annual income of about $10,000, a salary the former premier denies ever receiving.
The high court also ordered the NAB to investigate and conduct a trial into the Sharif family’s wider finances, including the London properties.
Sharif maintains control of the ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz party, which elected close ally Shahid Khaqi Abbasi as prime minister after Sharif was disqualified.
Pakistan’s ex-PM Nawaz Sharif appears in court for corruption trial
Pakistan’s ex-PM Nawaz Sharif appears in court for corruption trial
Brazil’s Lula accuses Trump of seeking to forge ‘new UN’
- Lula defended multilateralism against what he called “the law of the jungle” in global affairs
- Key US allies including France and Britain have also expressed doubts
BRASILIA: Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva accused Donald Trump on Friday of trying to create “a new UN” with his proposed “Board of Peace.”
The veteran leftist joins other world leaders who have avoided signing up for Trump’s new global conflict resolution organization, where a permanent seat costs $1 billion and the chairman is Trump himself.
“Instead of fixing” the United Nations, “what’s happening? President Trump is proposing to create a new UN where only he is the owner,” Lula said.
Trump unveiled his “Board of Peace” at the World Economic Forum in the Swiss ski resort of Davos Thursday, joined on stage by leaders and officials from 19 countries to sign its founding charter.
Lula defended multilateralism against what he called “the law of the jungle” in global affairs.
His remarks come a day after he spoke by phone with Chinese leader Xi Jinping, who urged his counterpart to safeguard the “central role” of the United Nations in international affairs.
In his remarks on Friday, Lula said “the UN charter is being torn.”
Although originally intended to oversee Gaza’s rebuilding, the board’s charter does not seem to limit its role to the Palestinian territory and appears to want to rival the United Nations.
Key US allies including France and Britain have also expressed doubts.
London balked at the inclusion of Russian President Vladimir Putin, whose forces are fighting in Ukraine after invading in 2022.
France said the charter as it currently stood was “incompatible” with its international commitments, especially its UN membership.
