year disqualification to contest election, the presidential pardon and other negative fallout of Nawaz Sharif's convictions in the plane hijacking and the helicopter cases would become void if his appeals in superior courts against these decisions were accepted, constitutional experts say. The pardon granted to the PML-N chief in December 2000 by President Rafiq Tarar on the recommendation of the then Chief Executive, General Pervez Musharraf, waived off the sentence imposed on Sharif in the plane hijacking case, but the fact that he was a “convict” was not undone. An expert pointed out that the 21-year disqualification to contest elections, which, along with 14-year imprisonment, awarded to Nawaz Sharif by the Attock Accountability Court in the helicopter tax evasion case was not done away with in the pardon. He said that all disqualifications, sentences and convictions of Nawaz Sharif would come to an end after his appeals in the Supreme Court and Lahore High Court (LHC) would be accepted. An appeal has already been filed in the LHC against the accountability court's verdict in the helicopter case. When the decision was pronounced, Nawaz Sharif had not availed of the right of appeal to the high court in 2000 as he, along with his entire clan, had gone to Saudi Arabia in exile. Similarly, he had not appealed against the Sindh High Court (SHC) judgment in the plane hijacking case that was handed down in an appeal against the decision of a Karachi anti-terrorism court. His lawyers are now in the process of filing an appeal in the Supreme Court against this ruling. Lawyers are split on the consequences of the presidential pardon. One set says that the pardon had just finished the sentence but had not quashed the conviction as it did not contain anything express and specific to the effect. However, the other set of experts held the view that both the sentence and conviction had ended by virtue of the presidential pardon. However, the pardon document is silent on the sentence and conviction of Nawaz Sharif in the helicopter case. The experts say that more than getting washed away the sentences in the two cases, Nawaz Sharif wanted his political vindication by getting himself acquitted in both the cases from the independent judiciary as he has all along held the view that the courts that prosecuted him were not biased and acting on the orders of the dictator. They say that both the appeals were time-barred, but assert that the first relief that Nawaz Sharif's lawyers would seek from the superior courts would be the undoing of the time limit for filing appeals. They say that the courts have the powers to ignore the fact that the time period allowed to file appeals lapsed over eight years ago. Whatever the result of these appeals, review petitions of Nawaz Sharif and Shahbaz Sharif are already pending disposal in the Supreme Court that had challenged their disqualification to contest last year's parliamentary elections. An interim relief was given to Shahbaz Sharif as a result of which his government stood restored in Punjab. The apex court is resuming hearing on the review petitions early next month.
