ISLAMABAD/LONDON A Pakistani anti-corruption court on Thursday indicted ousted Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and his daughter over allegations linked to ownership of London properties, opening a trial that could see the former leader jailed.

The Sharifs have called the corruption proceedings against them a conspiracy, hinting at intervention by the powerful military, but opponents have hailed it as a rare example of the rich and powerful held accountable.

Sharif, 67, resigned in July after the Supreme Court disqualified him from holding office over an undeclared source of income, but the veteran leader maintains his grip on the ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) party.Sharif, his daughter Maryam, as well as her husband Muhammad Safdar, had all indicted by the court of the anti-corruption agency, the National Accountability Bureau (NAB).

They all pleaded not guilty. Maryam and Safdar present in court, but Sharif, who wasprime minister twice in the 1990s, sent a representative while he tends to his ailing wife in Britain as she undergoes cancer treatment. Outside the court, Maryam again hinted at military interference in the judicial process by saying the trial “a repeat of 1999”, the year her father toppled in a military coup led by former army chief Pervez Musharraf. “These courts aren’t new for me. It has happened in 1999,” Maryam added, without elaborating.It is not clear if she was comparing the trial to the 1999 coup, or subsequent corruption accusations and investigations that Musharraf ordered into Sharif.

Watchdog reaches UK to probe Sharif’s assets

A special team of Pakistan’s anti- corruption watchdog arrived in the UK to probe Sharif and his children’s offshore assets, a media report said on Thursday. The team of the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) includes members of the combined investigation team that had prepared four corruption and money laundering cases against Sharif’s family and one case against Finance Minister Ishaq Dar for having assets beyond his known sources of income, Dawn News reported.

Hafiz Saeed’s house arrest extended for 30 days

Mumbai attack mastermind and banned Jamaat-ud-Dawah chief Hafiz Saeed’s house arrest on Thursday extended for another 30 days by a Judicial Review Board of Pakistan’s Punjab province. However, the board refused to allow the same in the detention of his four aides. The 30-day detention will be applicable from October 24.