Pak court bars Sharif from contesting bypoll

A Pakistani court disqualified former prime minister Nawaz Sharif on Monday from contesting this week’s by-election, an aide and his lawyers said.

Sharif was barred from the general election in February because he had been convicted for the hijacking of then army chief General Pervez Musharraf’s plane in 1999. But he was later cleared to contest the by-polls due on Thursday. A high court in the eastern city of Lahore again barred him from the election.

“The decision is based on conspiracy. It’s a political decision,” Sharif’s party spokesman Siddiqul Farooq said.