Is this a legal loophole?
If someone is convicted (which NS was) and then pardoned (which he also was), then the conviction still stands as a proof of that individuals guilt - it is just that the punishment was pardoned.
The plot thickens!
Who needs John Grisham!
Study Pakistani politics!
Former Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has been barred from standing in 8 January parliamentary elections.
A rival candidate had complained to the Election Commission, citing criminal convictions against Mr Sharif. The commission upheld the complaint.
Mr Sharif returned from exile last month. He was overthrown in a 1999 military coup led by the then head of the army, Gen Pervez Musharraf.
President Musharraf resigned from his army post last week.
He was sworn in for a second term as president, this time as a civilian, on Thursday.
Selective amnesty
Mr Sharif has until Friday to appeal against the ban.
"His nomination papers are rejected because of his convictions," election officer Raja Qamaruzaman told the Reuters news agency in the eastern city of Lahore.
Mr Sharif said he found the decision "very surprising" and would tell other opposition parties they should join him in opposing the vote.
"We should now be fighting the dictatorship with more vigour and more determination."
Mr Sharif has said his party plans to boycott the vote, although he filed his nomination papers before making a final decision.
President Musharraf signed into law an amnesty earlier this year that cleared former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto from corruption charges facing her.
At the time he and Ms Bhutto were engaged in power-sharing talks. The amnesty was a major factor in her decision to return from self-imposed exile.
However the terms of the amnesty did not clear Mr Sharif.
He was found guilty of hijacking and terrorism after ordering in 1999 that the plane carrying Gen Musharraf back to Pakistan be stopped from landing.
The move led to Gen Musharraf staging the coup.
Mr Sharif went into exile the next year.
Boycott differences
Mr Sharif and Ms Bhutto are meeting to discuss a possible joint boycott of January's elections.
Mr Musharraf says he will lift emergency rule, imposed one month ago, on 16 December.
Mr Sharif has called for a boycott, but Ms Bhutto has indicated that a boycott would play into Mr Musharraf's hands.
Mr Sharif's brother, Shahbaz, has already been banned from the January elections. He had also applied to stand for a Lahore constituency.
