Lahore: Pakistani opposition leader Shahbaz Sharif was ordered jailed for 10 days, on Saturday, after being arrested in a corruption case, his lawyer said. This means he will not be able to campaign for his party ahead of the crucial by-elections next week.
Shahbaz is the younger brother of ousted former prime minister Nawaz Sharif, who was sentenced earlier this year to 10 years in prison by an anti-corruption court, after the Supreme Court removed him from power.
Friday’s arrest of Shahbaz by National Accountability Bureau (NAB) agents in Lahore was for alleged corruption in a low-cost housing scheme, when he was chief minister of Punjab province.
On Saturday, a NAB court heard charges that Shahbaz in 2014 illegally cancelled a contract with a construction company and sought to award it to another company, allegedly for a bribe.
The court ordered him remanded in custody for 10 days to be interrogated, his lawyer Azam Nazir Tarar said.
Hundreds of activists from Shahbaz’s Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) party gathered outside the court, chanting pro-Sharif slogans as police and army rangers guarded the venue.
Shahbaz denies any wrongdoing, and his brother has denounced the corruption cases against him and other party leaders as politically motivated.
Lawyer Tarar said that Shahbaz was improperly arrested on a warrant that was kept secret. Shahbaz went to the court for questioning in another corruption case involving a water purification scheme, but was instead arrested on the housing project warrant. “They cannot arrest the leader of the opposition in this manner,” the lawyer said.
Hundreds of activists from Shehbaz’s Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) party gathered outside the court, chanting pro-Sharif slogans as police and army rangers guarded the venue.
Former premier Nawaz was arrested 10 days before the July 25 general election, which was won by cricket star-turned-politician Imran Khan, who leads the new government. Nawaz was released from prison last month pending an appeal.
The Sharifs’ PML-N came in second in the general election. Their party denounced the polls as rigged, alleging that the military and courts tipped the scale in favour of Khan’s party, a charge both the army and judiciary deny.
The PML-N says that Shahbaz’s arrest was intended to weaken the party before the by-elections on October 14. The by-elections are for 11 parliamentary seats and 19 provincial assembly seats.
The voting could affect the slim majority Khan’s coalition government holds in parliament, though many of the constituencies are PTI party strongholds.
