Five-year ban on former prime minister Yousuf Raza Gillani to contest for a public office expired on Wednesday.
Daughter of the ex-PM, Fiza Batool Gillani stated on Twitter, “Today, the five-year ban imposed on my father ends. Unlike Nawaz Sharif, my father did not get any solace from the courts. All this while, our family has endured and suffered even the most unbearable of times: the abduction of my brother.”
Yusuf Raza Gilani returns to mainstream politics after 5 years bar ! #YusufRazaGilani #PPP pic.twitter.com/PzSW5hUv8T
— Fiza Batool Gilani (@Fiza_Gilani) April 26, 2017
The Supreme Court had reprimanded then prime minister Gillani and sentenced him to a symbolic punishment over contempt of court.
He was ordered to be detained in the court until the hearing was adjourned on April 26, 2012 for not complying with the order and writing letter to Swiss authorities over alleged black money in foreign accounts belonging to PPP co-chairman, Asif Ali Zardari.
For being convicted by the top court, he no longer was eligible to contest for a public office for five years.
The development had come in after the apex court held an ordinance, passed by former dictator Pervez Musharraf, unconstitutional in December 2009.
During his tenure, the former president and army chief approved National Reconciliation Ordinance that gave the president and other lawmakers immunity over corruption references running for years.
The Supreme Court then ordered the government of Pakistan People’s Party to write to Swiss authorities to reopen the case against Zardari after it was dropped following Musharraf’s ordinance.
However, premier at the time, Gillani did not write to the foreign authorities and was punished by a seven-member bench headed by Jusitce Nasirul Mulk.
