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(Reuters) – Pakistan’s election commission on Thursday accepted former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s candidacy for the 2024 general elections, two weeks after a court overturned a corruption conviction against him, state broadcaster reported ARY News information.
However, Nawaz Sharif is still under a lifetime ban from holding any public office in order to run. A hearing on the matter will be held in January.
In 2017, the Supreme Court barred the ex-prime minister from holding any public office or running for office. She accused him in particular of not having disclosed the income of a company belonging to his son.
Recently, a Pakistani court overturned two corruption convictions against him.
Nawaz Sharif, who returned to his country in October after four years of self-imposed exile in London, is running for a fourth prime ministership in elections on February 8.
His biggest challenge will be regaining his support base from his main rival, former cricketer Imran Khan, who, despite being in prison for corruption, remains popular after his ouster as prime minister in 2022.
Imran Khan is disqualified from elections due to a corruption conviction, which he has appealed. At 71, he also filed his candidacy for elections on Friday, a member of his legal team said.
(Reporting Kanjyik Ghosh, French version Gaëlle Sheehan, edited by Kate Entringer)
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