Plane hijacking case: Supreme Court calls for Sharif's release order from Sindh government

The Supreme Court on Wednesday called for the release order of former prime minister Nawaz Sharif from the government of Sindh while hearing his appeal against conviction in plane hijacking case. Justice Tassdaq Hussain Jillani observed that Nawaz Sharif was in the custody of the government of Sindh prior to his exile and asked Advocate General Sindh Yousaf Leghari to present release order from the jail.
A five-member bench of the apex court comprising Justice Tassdaq Hussain Jillani, Justice Nasirul Mulk, Justice Moosa K Leghari, Justice Sheikh Hakim Ali and Justice Ghulam Rabbani is hearing appeal against conviction of Nawaz Sharif in plane hijacking case. Nawaz Sharif was sentenced life imprisonment by the Anti-Terrorism Court in April 2000 after it found him guilty for putting the life of some 200 passengers in danger by refusing to land a commercial aircraft at the Karachi airport.
On April 28, PML-N chief had challenged his conviction in plane hijacking case after almost eight years arguing that the sentence was manifestly illegal and was suffering from errors of law apparent on the face of record. Arguing before the court the AG said since pardon had been accepted by the court in disqualification case of Nawaz Sharif and Shahbaz Sharif, there was no need of filing an appeal against the conviction.
He requested the court to postpone the hearing of the case till issuance of detailed judgement in Sharif brothers' eligibility case. At that Justice Nasirul Mulk observed that the short order issued by the court in disqualification case of Sharif brothers does not say that pardon had been awarded to Nawaz Sharif. In addition, this case had nothing to do with disqualification case, he added.
The AG then requested the court to grant him some time so that he could go through the short order of the Supreme Court issued in Sharifs' eligibility case. The court accepted the request and adjourned the hearing till June 8.
Advocate Khawaja Haris represented Nawaz Sharif and said conviction in plane hijacking case was challenged to clear the 'stigma' of conviction. Earlier, the court had sought assistance of the state on the issue of how to condone the period of over eight years between the announcement of the judgement and filing of the appeal before the apex court.
According to law in the field an appeal has to be filed before the proper forum after the announcement of the judgement within the period of one month. Meanwhile, M. Haroon Shaukat filed an appeal under Order V Rule 2(2) of the Supreme Court for pleading as a party. Haroon Shaukat requested through his application that he wanted to share some important information with the court in plane hijacking case, which would be helpful in dispensation of justice.
"I was in working relationship with 4th Corps. Headquarter M.O (GHQ), ISI, NAB that's why the information I have are not known to rest of parties as well as are not discussed at any forum yet including this court," said the application.