Pakistan’s Supreme Court has lifted restrictions barring Nawaz Sharif, the former prime minister, from contesting elections – clearing the way for a future run for the premiership.

A ruling in February – preventing Mr Sharif and his brother Shahbaz, chief minister of Punjab province, from holding elected office because of past criminal charges – was overturned by the Supreme Court on Tuesday.

The earlier ruling, which the Sharifs branded as politically motivated, had sparked violent protests that threatened to destabilise further a country that has been rocked by the advance of Taliban Islamist militants.

The lifting of the electoral restrictions gives Mr Sharif the chance to mount a challenge for government leadership. He nurses ambitions to return to the premiership, once the enhanced powers of the presidency – adopted under military rule – are diluted.

“This is a decision welcomed by the entire nation,” Mr Sharif said on Tuesday in Lahore, Pakistan’s second-largest city, of the latest court ruling.

“Today, an independent judiciary is giving independent decisions.

“States and countries prosper on the basis of justice and fair play. We want the rule of law, and I salute the Pakistani nation as they secured the independence of the judiciary through their own struggle.”

Although parliamentary elections are not due for four years, Mr Sharif and his party, the Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz), might try to mount an earlier poll challenge against the ruling Pakistan People’s party.

Senior diplomats in Islamabad, however, say he is likely to bide his time, re-establishing a parliamentary role and building his popularity while the current government fights a war against Islamist militants and battles the effects of the global economic downturn.

The diplomats believe that Mr Sharif, who returned to Pakistan from seven years in exile in Saudi Arabia in November 2007, will make efforts to improve his historically rocky relationship with the powerful army and the US. But many continue to doubt his commitment – and that of some of his party leaders – to crack down on militants and religious extremists.

An opinion poll this month showed Mr Sharif as Pakistan’s most popular politician, with 71 per cent of those surveyed backing him to lead the country.

By comparison, President Asif Ali Zardari scored only 16 per cent in the poll conducted by the US-based International Republican Institute. Mr Sharif would have to change Pakistan’s constitution to serve a third term. He first became prime minister in 1990, holding office for three years before being sacked on corruption charges. He returned to power three years later, but in 1999 was ousted in a coup by General Pervez Musharraf, who resigned as president last August.

A figure loathed by Mr Sharif, the military ruler brought criminal charges against him for hijacking, terrorism and attempted murder.