Islamabad: Former Pakistan prime minister Nawaz Sharif has been sentenced to 10 years in jail for corruption.
His daughter Maryam Sharif was awarded seven years in jail.
The verdict, having come three weeks before general election, was delivered by Pakistan’s accountability court in one of the four cases of corruption against Nawaz- the Avenfield corruption case related to his ownership of four flats in the London.
Nawaz and his daughter are in London with Kulsoon Nawaz, Nawaz’s wife, who was diagoned with throat cancer last year and shifted to the UK for treatment. They have been making trips from London to Pakistan to attend the hearings.
His request for the pronouncement of the verdict to be delayed by a week was dismissed by the court. He had said he wished to hear the judgment of the case standing inside the courtroom where he “endured more than 100 hearings” with his daughter.
The court’s judgment is around 100 pages.
Nawaz and Maryan were also fined a fortune. While former Pakistan prime minister has to pay $ 10 million, his daughter has been fined $ 2.6 million.
The Avenfield case was among the four corruption cases filed against Nawaz and his children by the NAB on the Supreme Court’s orders in the Panama Papers case which disqualified Nawaz Sharif from holding public office and ruled that graft cases be filed against him.
The three-time prime minister had resigned from his post last year after the disqualification.
