ISLAMABAD: Minister for Interior Rana Sanaullah Khan hinted the government of his Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) party is considering to commute the sentence of disgraced former prime minister Nawaz Sharif in a host of graft cases.
The three-time prime minister was sentenced to 10 years in prison in 2018 after failing to prove a legal source of income for buying several luxury flats in central London in the 1990s, and one year for not cooperating with the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) in the case while his daughter, Maryam Nawaz, was handed seven years imprisonment for abetment.
In the same year, he was sentenced to seven years imprisonment in the Al-Azizia Steel Mills corruption reference with two fines — Rs1.5 billion and $25 million.
He flew to London in November 2019 on the pretext of medical treatment after the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) government removed his name from the Exit Control List (ECL) on the order of the Lahore High Court (LHC). He has since refused to return.
In an interview with Samaa TV, Khan claimed the government reserved the authority to commute, reduce or suspend a convict’s sentence.
“If an innocent person has been convicted wrongly, there is a way to suspend the sentence and the convict is given a chance to approach the court,” he added.
The minister said Sharif should lead his party’s campaign for the next elections, adding that his daughter, Nawaz, will lead the mass mobilisation drive.
When asked if he suspected the involvement of a foreign hand in the blast inside Karachi University, Khan replied: “Definitely.”
Our eastern neighbour has been trying to destabilise the hard-earned peace in Pakistan, said the minister.
“The law enforcement agencies are close to digging out the group involved in the incident,” he said. “It is very unfortunate that an entire family, an educated and well-off one on top of it, was involved. It negates the very assumption that people get involved in such things because of poverty or illiteracy.”
Khan further claimed that his name has not been removed from the Exit Control List (ECL). “My name was put on the no-fly list in a narcotics-related case, there’s a separate committee that looks after such matters,” he said.
“We have provided all the data to the committee which proves the case was fictitious. My name will be removed after the meeting of the committee,” he added.
When asked to comment if NAB chairman retired Justice Javed Iqbal will be given an extension, the minister said: “I think he should neither stay nor should we keep him.”
Responding to a question about the dissolution of the dirty money watchdog, the minister said that the government had held a meeting where some participants were of the view that it should be abolished altogether.
“But others believe that it would hurt the government’s political image.”
The minister claimed the plan of sloganeering against Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and his delegation in Medina was prepared in Pakistan and London. People from Pakistan and London travelled to Saudi Arabia for the purpose.
We will bring the perpetrators of the incident to justice, the minister vowed.
