Islamabad: Captain Mohammad Safdar, son-in-law of former prime minister, who was convicted in the Avenfield case, was arrested on Sunday by a team of National Accountability Bureau (NAB) in Rawalpindi.
Safdar was surrounded by Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) supporters in a political rally at the time of his arrest.
Pakistan’s accountability court on Friday had sentenced Nawaz Sharif to 10 years, his daughter Maryam to seven years and his son-in-law Safdar to one year in jail in the Avenfield corruption reference as Sharif family failed to provide legal documentation of their luxury flats in London.
Nawaz and Maryam are currently in London but have announced to return to Pakistan on Friday — before expiry of the 10-day time limit set for filing of an appeal against the verdict in the Islamabad High Court.
Safdar, who had been in Pakistan all along, reportedly went underground after the verdict and later announced that he would surrender to authorities on Sunday on the directives of the party leadership.
Before surrendering himself, Safdar held a rally at the famous Liaquat Bagh in Rawalpindi where he was joined by dozens of PML-N supporters. “Today we have to decide how the country will be run,” Safdar told the media. “I am surrendering myself in order to set a foundation for democracy.”
As dozens of PML-N workers had gathered along with Safdar at Liaquat Bagh, the NAB team contacted Islamabad police chief and requested a large contingent of police to help deal with the crowd.
Finally at around 5pm, NAB team arrested Safdar and took him to NAB’s Islamabad office in a procession.
According to local media reports, Safdar would be shifted to Adiala Jail in Rawalpindi after a medical check-up.
Earlier, Captain Safdar’s name was placed on the Exit Control List (ECL) so that he could not flee the country.
