A Pakistani court on Friday set aside former premier and PML(N) chief Nawaz Sharifs conviction in a case related to illegal purchase of a helicopter,the second ruling in a month that removed another roadblock in his return to electoral politics. A division bench of the Lahore High Court based in Rawalpindi acquitted Sharif in the nine-year-old case and said in a short order that the prosecution has failed to prove its case. In July 2000,an anti-corruption court had awarded Sharif a 14-year prison term and imposed a fine of Rs 50 million on him for alleged irregularities linked to the purchase of an Mi-8 helicopter. The court had also barred Sharif from holding any public office for 21 years. Shortly after Sharif was removed from office by then Army Chief Gen Pervez Musharraf in a military coup in 1999,he was accused by the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) of spending over $ 1 million on buying the helicopter and not declaring it in his tax returns. Sharif had challenged his conviction,saying in his appeal that it should be set aside as the judgement was politically motivated. The court did not accept the NAB counsels contention that the time limit for Sharif to appeal against the conviction had lapsed. Sharifs lawyer Khwaja Haris said he had only leased the helicopter for an election campaign. The expenditure on this account had been declared in income tax statements,Harris said. Though the NAB can appeal against the judgement in the Supreme Court,Fridays acquittal further cleared the way for Sharif to contest elections and enter Parliament.
