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EDITOR IN CHIEF- ABDULLAH BIN SALIM AL SHUEILI

Anti-graft agents arrest Shehbaz Sharif ahead of polls

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ISLAMABAD: Pakistani opposition leader Shehbaz Sharif was arrested on Friday in a longstanding corruption case, the country’s anti-graft agency said, nine days before crucial by-elections are due to be held.


His brother, ousted prime minister Nawaz Sharif, was sentenced earlier this year to 10 years in prison by the same agency after the Supreme Court removed him from power.


Friday’s arrest, by agents of the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) in Lahore, involved a case of alleged corruption in a low-cost housing scheme, called Aashyana (Shelter), when Shehbaz Sharif was chief minister of Punjab province.


“NAB Lahore has arrested former chief minister of Punjab Shehbaz Sharif in Aashyana company case. NAB will produce the former chief minister of Punjab in the honourable accountability court tomorrow,” a statement from the agency said.


Information Minister Fawad Chaudhry welcomed the arrest and offered the agency any help it needed.


“This step today is a big step,” he told reporters. New Prime Minister Imran Khan’s party campaigned on an anti-corruption platform.


Nawaz Sharif has denounced corruption cases against him and his party’s leaders as politically motivated, and both brothers deny any wrongdoing. Nawaz Sharif was released from prison last month pending an appeal against his conviction.


The former prime minister was arrested 10 days before the July 25 general election, which was won by cricket star turned politician Imran Khan, who now leads the new government.


The Sharifs’ Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz came in second place in the election. Their party, along with all other major opposition parties, denounced the polls as rigged, alleging the military and courts of tipping the scale in favour of Khan’s party. — Reuters


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