Pak anti-graft court indicts Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, daughter

A Pakistani anti-corruption court yesterday indicted ousted Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and his daughter over allegations linked to ownership of London properties, opening a trial that could see the former leader jailed. The Sharifs have called the corruption proceedings against them a conspiracy, hinting at intervention by the powerful military, but opponents have hailed it as a rare example of the rich and powerful being held accountable. Sharif, 67, resigned in July after the Supreme Court disqualified him from holding office over an undeclared source of income, but the veteran leader maintains his grip on the ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) party.

Maryam Nawaz, daughter of former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif (Below), arrives at the court in Islamabad. Pics/AP & AFP

A witness said Sharif, his daughter Maryam, as well as her husband Muhammad Safdar, had all been indicted by the court of the anti-corruption agency, the National Accountability Bureau (NAB). They all pleaded not guilty. Maryam and Safdar were present in court, but Sharif, sent a representative while he tends to his wife in Britain as she undergoes cancer treatment. Outside the court, Maryam again hinted at military interference in the judicial process by saying the trial was "a repeat of 1999", the year her father was toppled in a military coup led by former army chief Pervez Musharraf. "These courts aren't new for me. It has happened in 1999," Maryam added. It is not clear if she was comparing the trial to the 1999 coup, or subsequent corruption accusations and investigations that Musharraf ordered into Sharif.

Sharif's disqualification stemmed from the Panama Papers leaks in 2016 that appeared to show that his daughter and two sons owned offshore holding companies registered in the British Virgin Islands and used them to buy posh flats in London.