PAKISTAN: Ex-Prime Minister acquitted

Pakistan’s Supreme Court has acquitted opposition head Nawaz Sharif of hijacking charges, removing the final ban on him running for public office.

Attorney General Latif Khosa read a statement confirming the decision and congratulated Sharif. A meeting between Sharif and Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari will take place Friday at the Nawaz family residence in Lahore, presidential spokesman Farhat Ullah Babar said.

He was banned after being found guilty of hijacking then army chief General Pervez Musharraf’s plane in 1999. Mr Sharif was prime minster when he sacked Gen Musharraf. He was toppled in an army coup soon afterwards.

Mr Sharif was tried by the Sindh high court. He has always maintained that the charges were politically motivated. Mr Sharif’s government had ordered officials to divert Gen Musharraf’s plane away from Karachi and to a smaller city in Sindh. While he was imprisoned, Mr Sharif agreed to go into exile under a deal with Gen Musharraf who had taken over as Pakistan’s president.

Sharif, head of the Pakistan Muslim League-N political party, returned to his homeland in November 2007.