The Supreme Court of Pakistan has cleared the way for Nawaz Sharif to run in the elections by canceling the lifetime ban on running for election for people with criminal convictions.

Afghan Voice Agency (AVA): Nawaz Sharif's party known as "Nawaz Muslim League" is one of the first chances to win the February 8th national elections in the field of Pakistani politics, as the former Prime Minister Imran Khan is in prison and he is considered ineligible to run for prime minister.

Judge "Faez Isa", the chief justice of the Supreme Court of Pakistan and the head of the seven-member committee of judges of this court, said that the lifetime ban of people with criminal convictions from running for elections "deprives citizens of their fundamental right to run for election."

According to ISNA, in the voting in this committee to cancel this ban that was applied in 2018 by the decision of the same court, six votes were in favor against one vote against.

74-year-old Nawaz Sharif was removed as prime minister in 2017 by the Constitutional Court after allegations were made about his secret bank accounts in Panama. Last year, the Pakistani court overturned two of his convictions.

The recent verdict of the Supreme Court of Pakistan was issued not in response to Nawaz Sharif's petition, but in response to the petition filed by other politicians, but it ultimately makes Nawaz Sharif eligible to run for election, considering that more than five years have passed since 2017. to find

71-year-old Imran Khan, whose party won during the 2018 elections, is not subject to this ruling considering that only the word "cancellation of the ban for life" is used in it, and he will not be eligible to run in the elections until 2028.

Maryam Aurangzeb, a leader of the Nawaz Muslim League, wrote in a post in response to this verdict on the X social network: "Alhamdulillah, the dark chapter of the unfair judicial sentence for life-long disqualification, which made Nawaz Sharif the target of political revenge, has finally ended today. »

One of Imran Khan's lawyers, Intejar Hussain Panjota, described the lifting of the ban as the "death of the laws and constitution" of Pakistan.

Nawaz Sharif was removed from the prime ministership of Pakistan in 2017 and then convicted on corruption charges. In 2019, he left the prison due to the need for treatment and went to London, and then stayed there in a self-imposed exile until October 2023.

Nawaz Sharif in his previous prime ministerial terms supported policies focused on rapid economic growth, including the opening of the multi-billion dollar China-Pakistan Economic Corridor project.

Some time later, he adopted the policy of establishing closer relations with the rival country of Pakistan, India, which was read as the reason for his quarrels with the powerful Pakistani army, which sees India as a threat.