Karachi: Sharjeel Inam Memon, a former minister of Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP), was arrested by National Accountability Bureau (NAB) after his bail was called off by Sindh High Court on Monday.
The drama of Memon’s arrest lasted for a couple of hours after the Sindh High Court issued orders and the former information minister confined himself within the court’s premises as law enforcement agencies waited outside to carry out the arrest.
His lawyers submitted applications in the court to defer his arrest until the bail application was moved into the Supreme Court. However, the high court arrest orders stood valid and soon after Memon came out of the court, he was arrested by the paramilitary Rangers and the police.
Memon, who opted to flee the country last year and stayed away for months, had secured bail in National Accountability Bureau (NAB) cases, which charged him in a Rs5 billion (Dh174 million) corruption case in the ministry of information. About a dozen other people were also booked in the same case.
Talking to the media inside the court, Memon said he was not worried about the cases against him and he was ready to face the charges.
His party also issued a statement condemning his arrest.
Elsewhere, Imran Khan, the chief of Pakistan Tehreek e Insaf (PTI), who is on a visit to Karachi, remarked that people had now realised that the corruption was the topmost problem of the country.
Addressing a gathering of industrialists and businessmen, Khan said that it was impossible to progress without eliminating corruption in the country.
He added corrupt rulers had eaten up the nation’s wealth.
Khan said that in the Khyber Pakhtunkhawa province, where his party was ruling, none of his relatives was named as minister nor were there incidents of corruption in the past four years of his government.
He said that his government controlled the terrorism in the province and the people would not even move freely on the roads but now 70 per cent crimes and terrorism had been overcome. He said that became possible only because he depoliticised the police and all the appointments were made on merit.
Lashing out at corrupt government organisations, Khan said that Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) should be a corruption-free institution but that very office was indulging in collecting ‘extortion money’.
He also claimed that more than $10 billion (Dh36 billion) had been laundered annually in Pakistan and if that ill-gotten money was utilised in the country that could pave the way towards development.
