DHAKA: Nawaz Sharif has resigned as prime minister of Pakistan following a decision by the country's Supreme Court to disqualify him from office, reports BBC.

The ruling came after a probe into his family's wealth following the 2015 Panama Papers dump linking Sharif's children to offshore companies.

Sharif has consistently denied any wrongdoing in the case.
The five judges reached a unanimous verdict in the Islamabad court, which was filled to capacity.

"Following the verdict, Nawaz Sharif has resigned from his responsibilities as prime minister," a spokesman for Sharif's office said in a statement.

There was heightened security in the capital, with tens of thousands of troops and police deployed.

One of the judges, Ejaz Afzal Khan, said that Sharif was no longer "eligible to be an honest member of the parliament".

Pakistan's Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan earlier advised Sharif to accept Friday's verdict.

The court has recommended anti-corruption cases against several individuals, including Sharif, his daughter Maryam and her husband Safdar, Finance Minister Ishaq Dar and others.

Pakistan has repeated history. Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif is resigning. He was the 18th prime minister of Pakistan. Not a single one of the 17 prime ministers that preceded him have completed their full term in office.

Many believe that the Supreme Court has started a process of cracking down on corruption, which augurs well for democracy. 
Others see this as part of a long history of political manipulation through which the country's powerful military establishment has sought to control civilian decision-making.

The case hearings - spread over nearly 15 months - have been marred by controversy. The case belongs in a criminal court. The Supreme Court, which is an appellate body, initially refused to hear it. But then it not only admitted the petition for hearing, it also took the unusual step of instituting its own investigation into the case, with a dominant role for military intelligence services.

Many believe that while across-the-board action against corruption may remain a pipe dream, this verdict will open the gates of power for a new set of politicians - as has often happened in the past.

Nawaz Sharif, who was serving as prime minister for a record third time, was less than a year away from becoming the first in Pakistani history to complete a full term in office.

He served as prime minister from November 1990 to July 1993 and from February 1997 until he was toppled in a bloodless coup in October 1999.

Allegations of corruption have dogged Mr Sharif since the 1980s. And much of what the Panama Papers revealed was the subject of a federal inquiry in the mid-1990s.

It is not immediately clear who will succeed Mr Sharif, but his brother Shehbaz, who is chief minister of Punjab province, is seen as a strong contender for the job.

Pakistan's ruling party, the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), will be permitted by the speaker of the National Assembly to select an interim prime minister to rule until the 2018 general election.

However, Sharif is not the first prime minister to lose his position following the leaking of documents from the Panamanian law firm.
Iceland's prime minister was forced to resign after documents appeared to reveal that he and his wife concealed millions of dollars' worth of investments in an offshore company.

BDST: 1558 HRS, JUL 28, 2017
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