JURIST - Paper Chase: Pakistan prosecutor moves to revive Sharif corruption cases

[JURIST] Pakistan's National Accountability Bureau (NAB) [official website] is seeking to reopen corruption cases against former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif [party profile; JURIST news archive] and his brother, said the NAB's Deputy Prosecutor General Zulfiqar Ahmed Bhutta on Tuesday. Bhutta said the NAB had filed an application in Accountability Court IV in Rawalpindi asking the court to reverse last month's decision to adjourn the cases indefinitely [Daily Times report]. Judge Khalid Mehmood suspended the cases on technical grounds, ruling that a prior application to reinstate them should have been signed by the NAB chairman. Nawaz Sharif and his brother Shahbaz Sharif [personal website], chief minister of Punjab province, faced charges including money laundering and accumulating wealth beyond declared sources of income. The court is scheduled to consider the NAB application on Thursday. AP has more. The Times of India has additional coverage.

Sharif is head of the Pakistan Muslim League - Nawaz (PML-N) party [party website], which he withdrew from the coalition government [JURIST report] last week over the failure to reach an agreement with the Pakistan People's Party (PPP) [party website] to reinstate judges who were removed [JURIST report] last year by former President Pervez Musharraf [JURIST news archive]. Musharraf resigned [JURIST report] last month, largely to avoid impeachment for the judges' dismissals and other alleged abuses of authority, and an election to replace him is scheduled for Saturday. On Monday, the head of an organization called Save the Judiciary filed a petition [Daily Times report; Dawn report] in the Pakistani Supreme Court [official website], seeking to have the election delayed because acting president Mohammedmian Soomro [official website] allegedly did not take the oath of office as prescribed in the Pakistani Constitution [PDF text]. In another development in Pakistan [JURIST news archive], the government has reportedly contacted several judges [Daily Times report] removed by Musharraf about reappointment to the Peshawar High Court [official website]. Eight Sindh High Court judges were reinstated last week [JURIST report].

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