15 December 2017•Update: 15 December 2017
By Aamir Latif
KARACHI, Pakistan
Pakistan's top court on Friday rejected reopening of a 17-year-old corruption case against ousted premier Nawaz Sharif and his family, according to local media reports and court records.
The verdict has brought some relief to the ruling party, Pakistan Muslim League, which claims it is being politically targeted by the country's powerful civil-military establishment.
A three-member bench of the Supreme Court led by Justice Mushir Alam Rizvi unanimously rejected an appeal by the country's anti-corruption authority seeking opening of a case, commonly referred to as the Hudaibiya Papers Mill.
The prosecution alleges the Sharif family in the 1990s used the company to launder 1.2 billion Pakistani rupees ($10 million) out of the country.
A one-line judgment read by Rizvi said the appeal to reopen the case was dismissed and a detailed verdict would be issued later.
The appeal was filed last month following the verdict of a five-member bench of the Supreme Court in July which had disqualified the three-time premier Sharif.
The top court had ordered the anti-corruption body to file an appeal against a high court judgement which had quashed the Hudaibiya case in 2014.
Investigation into the money laundering case had been initiated during the era of former military dictator Gen. Pervez Musharraf who had ousted the democratically elected Sharif during a coup in 1999.
The latest verdict has not only saved the embattled Sharif from further litigation but also paved the way for his younger brother Shahbaz Sharif to run for prime minister in the 2018 general elections.
The younger Sharif, who is currently serving as chief minister for the country's largest province Punjab, was co-accused in the case, the only corruption-related probe pending against him.
