A judge has dismissed objections to former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif running for a vacant seat in the Pakistani parliament next month. Sharif was barred from February parliamentary elections because of prior criminal convictions, including one related to President Pervez Musharraf's 1999 coup. But Sharif supporters cheered outside a court in Lahore on Thursday after a judge dismissed complaints against his renewed candidacy. The judge didn't explain the decision. Sharif's party finished second in the February voting and joined a coalition government led by the party of assassinated ex-premier Benazir Bhutto. Sharif's party withdrew from the government this week over its failure to restore judges purged by Musharraf.
