Pakistan’s interior minister hints at suspending Nawaz Sharif’s sentence

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s interior minister Rana Sanaullah said on Sunday the federal and provincial governments had the authority to suspend the sentence of an individual who had been wrongfully convicted while responding to a question about the possibility of overturning former prime minister Nawaz Sharif’s prison sentence.
Sharif was found guilty in a corruption reference by an accountability court in Pakistan and sent to jail for 10 years in 2018. He started serving his prison term, though he was temporarily released on medical grounds to seek treatment in London. Subsequently, he did not return to his country since 2019.
Last month, Sharif’s younger brother took oath as Pakistan’s prime minister after ex-PM Imran Khan was ousted from power in a no-confidence vote.
“The federal government and the Punjab administration have powers to reduce, quash or suspend punishment,” Sanaullah said in a brief interview with Samaa TV. “If an innocent person has been convicted, his punishment can be suspended like this and he can be given the opportunity to get justice from court according to the laid down procedures.”
Asked about the timings of Sharif’s return to the country, the interior minister said that “politically speaking” the founder of his Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) party should be available for the next election campaign.
Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s administration has already issued passport to the PML-N leader who is in self-exile in London.
The country’s former interior minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed under Imran Khan’s government announced in December 2020 that Nawaz Sharif’s diplomatic passport was going to be canceled.
Sanaullah earlier told the local media it was “unfortunate” that a person who had served his country three times as prime minister had been “deprived of national citizenship.”
According to the media reports, the country’s new prime minister asked the relevant authorities to issue his elder brother a diplomatic passport even before appointing his cabinet.
The former PM in London ultimately got the regular Pakistani passport with a duration of 10 years.