Sharif barred from contesting elections for life after Pak SC verdict

Pakistan's ousted prime minister Nawaz Sharif was today barred from contesting elections for life, after the Supreme Court ruled that the disqualification of a lawmaker under the Constitution is permanent, a landmark verdict ending the political future of the three-time premier.

The verdict was issued unanimously by all five judges of the bench while hearing a petition related to determination of time duration for disqualification of a lawmaker under the Constitution.

The court had grappled with Article 62(1)(f) which only stated that a lawmaker is disqualified under specified conditions but did not set out the duration of the disqualification.

Article 62, which sets the precondition for a member of parliament to be "sadiq and ameen" (honest and righteous), is the same provision under which Sharif was disqualified on July 28, 2017, in the Panama Papers case.

The court later also disqualified Sharif as head of the ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz.

In today verdict, the SC =said that under the country's Constitution, no person once disqualified from office by the top court can hold public office again.

The historic ruling ended 68-year-old Sharif's hopes for a political future.