NEW DELHI -- Pakistan's two most important political figures are facing bleak times.
Nawaz Sharif, once the most powerful man in the country, is now caught in the murkiest of legal cases, and escape from them seems almost impossible. Recently, the deposed prime minister was sentenced to 14 years' hard imprisonment in a corruption case, fined very heavily and ordered not to hold public office for 21 years. This can well be the last nail on the coffin of his ambition.
For, Sharif is already serving two life terms for hijacking the current strongman Pervez Musharraf's aircraft in October, hours before the coup in which he was overthrown) and terrorism.