"Nawaz Sharif will be in and out of jail" Pak minister

    Islamabad, Sep 20 (PTI) "Nawaz Sharif will be in and out of jail," a senior Pakistani minister said Thursday, downplaying the release of the ousted prime minister from jail on bail in a corruption case.
    Fawad Chaudhry, Minister of Information in Prime Minister Imran Khan's Cabinet, pointed out that Sharif had only secured bail, not been vindicated of the charges against him.
    The Islamabad High Court Wednesday suspended the jail sentences of Sharif, his daughter Maryam and son-in-law Capt (retd) Muhammad Safdar in the Avenfield corruption case and they were released from the Adiala Prison in Rawalpindi.
    An accountability court in Islamabad sentenced Sharif, Maryam and Safdar, to 10 years, seven years and one year in jail, respectively, on July 6 in connection with the purchase of four luxury flats in London through corrupt practices.
    "Nawaz Sharif will be in and out of jail. The first thing I would like to do is address those people who kept asking why we put the Sharif family's name on the exit-control list (ECL). I guess now they know why we did it: had we not, they could have flown to London yesterday evening, and where would we have looked for them then?"
    The information minister also said that Prime Minister Khan does not have a personal feud with the Sharifs, "The government is simply the custodian of the wealth of the Pakistani people and we need to bring the looted wealth back to the country."
    "Neither will we let Nawaz and Maryam leave the country nor will we let (ex-finance minister) Ishaq Dar, Hasan and Hussain Nawaz (Sharif's sons) stay abroad for much longer," Chaudhry said, adding that the Sharif family will have to return the Pakistani people's money back to them.
    "Those who say that the Prime Minister Khan visited Saudi Arabia to cut a deal regarding the Sharifs don't understand how the Saudis' relationship is with Nawaz Sharif. They don't understand where the Sharif family stands with the Saudis," the information minister added.
    Sharif resigned as Pakistan prime minister last year after the Supreme Court disqualified him from holding public office and ruled that graft cases be filed against the beleaguered leader and his children over the Panama Papers scandal.
    The Avenfield case was among the three corruption cases filed against the 68-year-old three-time former premier and his children by the NAB on the Supreme Court's orders in the Panama Papers case which disqualified Sharif. PTI AKJ AKJ