PML-N will take 'political advantage' of Avenfield verdict: Zardari

Pakistan People's Party (PPP) co-chairman and former president Asif Ali Zardari said the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) party would take political advantage of the Avenfield properties case verdict.

Speaking to a private news channel on Friday, he claimed that it would even take advantage of the sympathies of the people, who are avid supporters of former Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, ahead of the general elections slated to be held on July 25, News International reported.

Zardari added that Sharif and his daughter Maryam Nawaz will not return to Pakistan as he had taken "political asylum" in the United Kingdom.

Asked on the possibility of the delay in the elections, Zardari replied that there was no reason as to why it should be postponed.

On Friday, Sharif was sentenced to 10 years of imprisonment and a fine of eight million pounds in the Avenfield reference case, while his daughter Maryam was sentenced to 7 years of jail and fined two million pounds by the accountability court.

With this ruling, Maryam is barred from contesting the general elections slated to be held on July 25. Her husband Captain (retd) Muhammad Safdar was also sentenced to one year of imprisonment.

The court also issued permanent arrest warrants of Sharif's sons - Hassan Nawaz and Hussain Nawaz respectively.

Sharif and Maryam are in London since June 14 visiting the former's wife, Kulsoom Nawaz, who is undergoing cancer treatment there.