Pakistan court acquits former PM Nawaz Sharif in Al-Azizia corruption case

The Islamabad High Court on Tuesday acquitted Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) supremo and former prime minister Nawaz Sharif in the Al-Azizia Steel mill corruption case as he eyes a record fourth term as premier in the next elections.

Sharif, 73, was sentenced to seven years in jail and imposed a heavy fine by an anti-corruption court in December 2018 after he failed to convince the court that he had nothing to do with the steel mill set up by his father in 2001 in Saudi Arabia.

The Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Tuesday acquitted Sharif in the Al-Azizia reference.

He was already acquitted in the Avenfield case in which he was convicted in July 2018 and sentenced to ten years in Jail. He also got relief in the Flagship corruption case in which he was declared innocent by the court in 2018 but the acquittal was challenged in the IHC by the National Accountability Bureau (NAB).

Sharif was living in exile in Saudi Arabia at the time the mill was set up after the former military ruler Pervez Musharraf toppled his government in 1999 and bundled out of the country the former first family. Sharif's son Hussain Nawaz was the administrative head of the mill.

Sharif, the only Pakistani politician who became the prime minister of the coup-prone country for a record three times, returned to the country in October to lead his party in general elections scheduled in February 2024.