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Islamabad: An anti-terrorism court yesterday acquitted the brother of former prime minister Nawaz Sharif yesterday in a case of unlawful killing clearing his way to contest a by-election to become chief minister of Punjab.
The Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) president Shahbaz Sharif was disqualified from standing in the February 18 elections on the grounds that he was an accused in a case of the killing of five people in 1998 in Lahore by the police when he was chief minister.
He was implicated in the case in 2001, more than a year after then army chief General Pervez Musharraf, now civilian president, toppled the government of Nawaz Sharif and exiled the Sharif brothers.
The court headed by judge Shabbir Hussain Chattha passed the acquittal in Lahore, where Shahbaz was charged with having ordered the police to kill the five people in a fake encounter.
The Sharifs returned to Pakistan in November and led their party's campaign for the February 18 elections.
PML-N gained top position in the Punjab assembly and became the second largest in the National Assembly after the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) of slain former prime minister Benazir Bhutto.
Sharif, whose candidacy in the elections was also rejected, plans to enter the National Assembly through a by-election.
The acquittal of Shahbaz comes ahead of inaugural sessions of the newly elected National Assembly and four provincial legislatures, expected next week.
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