ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s Supreme Court on Friday ordered disciplinary action against a judge who convicted former premier Nawaz Sharif, effectively giving a boost to Sharif’s appeal against a seven-year jail term for corruption.
Sharif was convicted and jailed last year after failing to prove the source of income that had led to his ownership of a steel mill in Saudi Arabia. Under Pakistani law, that is taken as proof of corruption.
Sharif denied the charges that he said were politically motivated.
His party in July presented a video at a news conference apparently showing the judge who presided over Sharif’s conviction, Arshad Malik, as saying he had been pressured into handing down a guilty verdict by individuals he did not identify who had compromising footage of him.
Malik later issued a statement denying he had been blackmailed to convict Sharif and saying the video had been manipulated.
Malik had already been removed from his position in an anti-corruption court and the Supreme Court on Friday ordered him to report back to the High Court in the city of Lahore.
“We expect that after his repatriation appropriate departmental disciplinary proceedings shall be initiated against him,” the Supreme Court said in an order.
The court said Malik’s “stinking conduct” in connection with the video scandal was abhorrent, and an appeals court should decide whether to consider it as evidence for any relief for Sharif.
An appeal against Sharif’s conviction is pending before the Islamabad High Court. The Supreme Court said that was the proper forum to evaluate the video scandal.
Pakistan Supreme Court orders action against judge in ex-PM Nawaz Sharif case
Pakistan Supreme Court orders action against judge in ex-PM Nawaz Sharif case
- Sharif was convicted and jailed last year after failing to prove the source of income that had led to his ownership of a steel mill in Saudi Arabia
- An appeal against Sharif’s conviction is pending before the Islamabad High Court
Guinea confirms detention of 16 Sierra Leonean soldiers
- Guinea said late Tuesday the soldiers entered the Koudaya district in the Faranah region without authorization
- Guinea said its forces seized their equipment and supplies
CONAKRY: Guinea’s military confirmed the detention of 16 Sierra Leonean soldiers after accusing them of crossing the border and raising their flag on Guinean soil.
The two West African countries have been involved in a border dispute for more than two decades, stemming from the Sierra Leonean Civil War between 1991 and 2002. Sierra Leone’s government had invited Guinea to help defend its eastern borders during the war, but the Guinean troops didn’t completely withdraw after the war.
The GuineanMinistry of National Defense said in a statement, issued late Tuesday, the soldiers entered the district of Koudaya in Faranah, a border region in Guinea, without authorization, where they“set up a tent and raised their national flag”. Guinean authorities also seized their equipment and supplies.
The Sierra Leonean authorities earlier Tuesday said several members of a security unit, including an officer, had been apprehended while making bricks fora border post in Kalieyereh in the district of Falaba on Monday.
Last year, the Guinean military entered a mineral-rich border town in Sierra Leone, reigniting the tension.
