The New Nation - Internet Edition

BSS, Islamabad

Former prime minister of Pakistan Nawaz Sharif is disqualified to contest elections because the conviction in a plane hijack conspiracy case remains as the sentence awarded to PML-N leader was not pardoned but only remited by General Pervez Musharraf, Pakistan's top law officer has said.

Atorney General (AG) Malik Qayyum said the sentence awarded to the former premier was not pardoned but remited by the president, adding that the stigma of conviction remains. Qayyum said the sentence of fine and property confiscation would be applicable and (Sharif) is disqualified from contesting the elections.

"The law will take its own course, whenever the petitioners come to Pakistan. A Rs. 500 milliom fine is imposed on Nawaz Sharif in the plane conspiracy case that will be recovered through the confiscation of his property," Qayyum was quoted as saying by the Daily Times newspaper Friday.

The AG said there was a difference between pardon and remission. If the president grants pardon, the conviction is abolished, but in case of a remission only the imprisonment is taken away and the sentence of fine and the confiscation of property remains intact with the stigma of conviction.

Because of this conviction, the AG said, Sharif was unable to contest the elections, and is rendered disqualified under Article 62 of the Constitution.

However, a former chief justice of Pakistan Saeeduz Zaman Siddiqui said that according to Article 45 of the Constitution the cases in which President Musharraf pardoned the former premier cannot be reopened nor can the sentences be revived. "Once pardoned after conviction a sentence can't be revived, but if a case is pending then this is a different mater and the Sharif brothers will have to face them in court," Justice (retd) Siddiqui told Geo television Thursday.

Former chief justice Siddiqui said that no person could be disqualified from contesting the elections on the basis of moral turpitude and the hijacking case against Nawaz didn't come under any such condition.

He said a person could only be disqualified from contesting the polls if he got a conviction in a NAB case, and that Nawaz had never been convicted in any such mater. He said that any person could contest the elections while facing cases in courts.

The former premier was sentenced to life imprisonment in a plane hijack conspiracy case. He was charged with hijacking a commercial PIA flight carrying General Musharraf and other passengers from Colombo on October 12, 1999.

In another case, an accountability court sentenced him to 14 years imprisonment on April 6, 2000, after conducting his trial in Atock Fort on the charges of purchasing and misusing an official helicopter.

A Rawalpindi accountability court has recently re-opened three accountability references against him. The lawyers of the Sharifs claim that the president had pardoned two major sentences and that a pardon could not be rescinded in any case.