By Shaiq Hussain and Antonio Olivo
Sharif, 67, was ousted from power in July by the country’s Supreme Court after months of hearings on the corruption charges. He and his family stand accused of using offshore holding companies to buy luxury properties in London, charges stemming from the Panama Papers leaks in 2016.
Sharif — who was not in court — sent a plea of not guilty. His daughter Maryam and her husband, Muhammad Safdar, were also named in the indictment by the anti-corruption court.
“You tell me if this is justice or murder of justice,” Sharif told reporters in London on Thursday, where he is staying with his wife while she undergoes treatment for cancer.
“I think that if our justice system continues like this then we will get nothing but embarrassment,” he was quoted as saying by the Geo News channel in Pakistan.
Sharif’s supporters claim he is the target of high-level conspiracies that include the country’s powerful military. But Sharif decided last summer to step down rather than try to cling to power — quashing concerns about a possible military intervention in the nuclear-armed country of 180 million.
Sharif had returned to Pakistan earlier to face the charges and is expected to fly back from London by Sunday to prepare for the trial, which is set to open next week.
The five-member court’s findings — and now the indictment — give a powerful boost to Pakistan’s major opposition leader, former cricket star Imran Khan, 64, who brought the case against Sharif in the Supreme Court more than a year ago.
Sharif's Pakistan Muslim League party hopes to counteract that momentum by showing party unity in the face of the political scandal.
“Nawaz Sharif is bravely facing all these false cases, he hasn't run away from facing the courts and he will come out victorious,” said Zafar ul Haq, a Pakistani senator who is also a senior leader of Sharif's Pakistan Muslim League party.
The case stemmed from the disclosure of the so-called Panama Papers, which included leaked documents from a Panamanian law firm that implicated leaders of several foreign countries, including Pakistan, in shady financial dealings. The trial means possible jail time for Sharif if found guilty.
After the indictment, Maryam Nawaz vowed to fight the charges, which she called “a travesty of justice and a mockery of justice.”
“I refuse to accept the charges,” Nawaz told reporters outside the federal courthouse. “We are being denied a fundamental right to justice. I plead not guilty.”
No Pakistani prime minister has completed a full term since the country’s founding in 1947. Sharif had served as prime minister twice in the 1990s.
Sharif repeatedly denied the charges during the Supreme Court proceedings, but offered varying and sometimes contradictory explanations as to how he and his family had financed various properties, especially a group of luxury apartments in London.
During the Supreme Court hearings, a senior justice excoriated Sharif and his family for engaging in “mafia”-like financial dealings.
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