Nawaz Sharif, daughter arrested

Lahore, July 13: Ousted Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and his daughter Maryam were arrested on Friday after flying back to the country to face lengthy prison sentences, in a high-stakes gamble to galvanise their beleaguered party ahead of a July 25 election.

Uniformed men escorted the Sharifs, who were sentenced in absentia on corruption charges last week, from their airplane after it touched down in the central city of Lahore at around 8:45 p.m.

A spokesman for Sharif’s Pakistan Muslim LeagueNawaz (PML-N) party confirmed they were arrested soon afterwards. Local Geo TV said Sharif and his daughter were taken to another waiting aircraft to be flown out of Lahore, where more than 10,000 Sharif supporters were gathered to greet him.

Ahead of his arrival in Lahore, security was tightened and all roads leading to Punjab’s capital city were blocked using shipping containers to prevent PML-N supporters from holding a rally.

Clashes broke out Friday evening at the main highway entry point to Lahore between pro-Sharif protesters and police who had been deployed in their thousands.

Mobile phone service had been cut off in mid-afternoon, as Sharif’s brother, Shehbaz, led around 10,000 party supporters on a march towards the city centre in defiance of a ban on public gatherings.

The country’s media regulator warned local news channels to abstain from airing statements “by political leadership containing defamatory content targeting various state institutions specifically judiciary and armed forces”.