Sir — An accountability court in Pakistan sentenced ousted Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif to 10 years of rigorous imprisonment in one of the three corruption cases against him in the high-profile Panama Papers scandal. It will be a huge blow to his party ahead of the elections on July 25.

It is for the third time that the Nawaz Sharif Government has been sent packing and this time he has also been awarded a jail term.

First, he was removed in a military coup and now through a judicial verdict. If history is to repeat itself, Sharif might return once again the way he returned previously. Few predict the PML-N bringing Shehbaz Sharif to the forefront ahead of the elections was a move to gain sympathy vote.

Options to save the party from extinction are still very much available.

The former ruling party might still manage to win a few seats in both the assemblies but it died a political death, as circumstances will never be favourable to the party as it did in

the past.

Paying the price