image1
Pakistan’s former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, right, and his daughter Maryam. (File photo by AFP)

Pakistan’s former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s candidacy has been approved by the Election Commission for the 2024 elections, weeks after Islamabad’s High Court overturned his convictions.

"PML-N supremo Nawaz Sharif’s nomination papers for NA-130 (National Assembly seat from Lahore) have been accepted by the Election Commission," lawyer Amjad Pervez told reporters on Tuesday.

"Sharif’s disqualification has ended after his acquittal in corruption references against him," Pervez was quoted as saying.

He said 73-year-old Sharif can now contest both from Lahore and the city of Mansahra in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

Earlier in 2017, following revelations made by the Panama Papers case, Sharif was disqualified from holding public office for life by the Supreme Court.

He was later convicted of corruption in connection with the purchase of upscale flats in London in 2018. Nawaz Sharif has been on a self-imposed exile in London.

Holding three non-consecutive terms as prime minister, but without completing a full term, Sharif arrived back home in October in hopes of attempting for a fourth premiership in the February 8 elections.

On November 29, Islamabad’s High Court overturned a corruption conviction for Sharif, which made him closer to being able to run for elections.

However, the removal of the lifelong ban on holding any public office is still needed to qualify him to run in the elections. The hearing for the ban’s removal will be held in January.

Sharif, the longest-serving prime minister of Pakistan, faces his biggest challenge to gain his lost public support against his main rival, former Prime Minister and ex-cricketer Imran Khan.

Khan’s party Tahreek-e-Insaf alleges that under the so-called London Plan Sharif will be made the prime minister following the polls with the blessing of the military establishment under army chief General Asim Munir.

Despite being in jail, Khan, 71, remains a popular choice among the Pakistanis after he became the first prime minister to be ousted from his position through a no-confidence motion in April 2022. He is currently disqualified to run in the elections, but still he filed nomination papers for the election on Friday.