PPP distances itself from graft case against Sharif

The PML-N, which last week pulled out of the PPP-led Government and decided to sit in the opposition, has criticised the National Accountability Bureau's move to reopen corruption cases against Sharif, his brother Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif and other members of their family.

However, senior PPP leader and Law Minister Farooq Naek said the cases against the Sharif brothers were initiated during Musharraf's rule.

The trial of the cases could not be completed because Sharif was abroad. Now that he had returned to Pakistan, the prosecutor general of NAB decided to pursue the case to take them to their conclusion, Naek said. He also said he had sought a briefing on the merits of the cases from the chairman of NAB.

The court of the Special Judge (Central) on Thursday will take up the three cases against Sharif and his relatives.

These cases have been pending since July 2000. PML-N leaders said the move by NAB appeared to be aimed at using anti-corruption courts against Sharif. PML-N leader Ahsan Iqbal, a close aide of Sharif, said pursuing the cases smacked of "political bankruptcy".

"Sometimes, if you cannot get things done politically, then you try to blackmail the opposition," Iqbal said.

The move by the NAB, which is under the law ministry, to reopen the cases came just nine days after Sharif pulled the PML-N out of the PPP-led ruling coalition. The cases were indefinitely adjourned on technical grounds by an anti-corruption court last month.

Law Minister Naek said the cases were not new and had been pending for a "very long" time. "When the cases are pending for long, prosecutors have the right to move an application. I want that the prosecutors should move in accordance with the law," he said.