Pakistan PM quits after court orders disqualification

Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif speaks during a joint news conference in Kabul, Afghanistan, May 12, 2015. [Photo/Agencies]

ISLAMABAD - Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif Friday quit as prime minister after the Supreme Court disqualified him over corruption charges.

The court had ordered the Election Commission of Pakistan to de-notify Nawaz Sharif as member of the parliament.

In a formal reaction to the court's verdict, the spokesman for the ruling party Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) party said that despite "serious reservations over the contents of the petition and different stages until the court's verdict, it has been decided that the court verdict will be implemented."

"The Prime Minister Mr Nawaz Sharif immediately relinquished powers as prime minister," the spokesman said in a statement issued by the PM's office.

He said "all legal and constitutional requirements of fair trial have been badly trampled. Injustice has been done with us. History will make its own decision on this verdict."

The court had also ordered the country's anti-corruption body National Accountability Bureau to start formal criminal proceedings against the PM, the country's finance minister and two sons, daughter and son-in-law of the prime minister for allegedly concealing their property abroad.