Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf chairman Imran Khan on Friday cancelled his visit to the Supreme Court as it is set to announce a new judgement that could topple Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif who is embroiled in a long-running corruption case.
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“Due to security concerns IK has cancelled his visit to the SC today,” PTI spokesperson Naeemul Haque tweeted. Last night, Haque had tweeted the cricketer-turned-politician will visit SC “to hear the judgment in his case against Nawaz.” Around 3,000 police and paramilitary forces are to be deployed around the court in Islamabad ahead of the ruling, due to be announced Friday morning, a police spokesperson said. The court had in April declared there was “insufficient evidence” to oust PM Nawaz over the graft allegations engulfing his family, and ordered an investigation team to probe the matter.
Due to security concerns IK has cancelled his visit to the SC today.
— Naeem ul Haque (@naeemul_haque) July 28, 2017
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The team of civilian and military investigators found there was a “significant disparity” between the Sharif family’s income and lifestyle in its report submitted to the court earlier this month. The Sharifs and their allies have consistently and noisily rejected the claims, with his ruling PML-N party this month dismissing the investigation team’s report as ‘trash’. The controversy erupted last year with the publication of 11.5 million secret documents from Panamanian law firm Mossack Fonseca documenting the offshore dealings of many of the world’s rich and powerful.
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Three of Nawaz’s four children Maryam, his presumptive political heir, and his sons Hasan and Hussein were implicated in the papers. At the heart of the case is the legitimacy of the funds used by the Sharif family to purchase several high-end London properties via offshore companies. The PML-N insists the wealth was acquired legally, through Sharif family businesses in Pakistan and the Gulf. The push against Nawaz has been spearheaded by cricketer-turned-politician Imran Khan and his PTI party, who said Sharif has lost “moral authority”.
IK will visit SC tmoro to hear the judgement in his case against Nawaz. The most important case perhaps in the history of our country.
— Naeem ul Haque (@naeemul_haque) July 27, 2017
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Bribery and other forms of graft are endemic in Pakistan, with the country coming in 116th place out of 176 countries ranked according to corruption by Transparency International in 2017. Nawaz f has been ousted by graft allegations once before, during the first of his three terms as prime minister in 1993. He has not yet completed a term as prime minister, having been toppled in his second term by a military coup in 1999.
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The allegations are a blow to his credibility ahead of general elections due to be held by next year, and as the civilian government appears to have reached an uneasy detente with the military, which has ruled Pakistan for half of its existence. His party currently has no clear successor in place. Daughter Maryam does not hold public office, while his brother Shahbaz Sharif, the current chief minister of Punjab province, holds only a provincial seat.
