Sindh government to issue warrant against Punjab CM

Sindh law minister Ayaz Soomro told a press conference that the two brothers, Nawaz Sharif and Shahbaz Sharif, were convicted in the plane hijacking case by an anti-terrorist court in Karachi in early 2000.

Nawaz Sharif was shifted to Adiala Jail whereas Shahbaz Sharif was sent to the district jail of Malir in Karachi. From the jail there is no record as to how he was released and how he got out of the jail, he told the press conference.

“That is why the Sindh government would soon issue the warrant to search him,” Soomro said.

Shahbaz Sharif was thrown out as the chief minister of the Punjab province in 1999 when Pervez Musharraf staged a bloodless coup against Nawaz Sharif, the then prime minister.

After becoming the chief executive of the country, the then general Musarraf had the two brothers arrested and charged them for an attempt of hijacking the plane in which he was flying. The two brothers faced the anti-terrorism court and till the last report both were under trial in the court.

Later on, under an alleged deal with the military dictator, an undeclared clemency was given to the Sharif brothers who left the country for Saudi Arabia where they lived in exile for about a decade.

Under yet another and broader deal both the brothers came back home in 2007 before general elections. Slain leader Benazir Bhutto, who was also in self-exile, came back the same year after she hammered out a political deal with Musharraf.

“We are not aware how Shahbaz Sharif slipped out of jail but we would treat him equally like any other accused or wanted man as under the law all are equal,” Soomro remarked.

Besides hijacking, the Sharifs also face graft and corruption cases which were filed by the National Accountability Bureau (NAB), Soomro said.