Sharif supporters held in sweep
Ousted Pakistan PM expected to be arrested on arrival in Lahore today
Police forces in Pakistan detained dozens of supporters of Nawaz Sharif a day ahead of the ousted prime minister’s scheduled return to Lahore to face corruption charges, his party said yesterday.
The Pakistan Muslim LeagueNawaz (PML-N) said more than 500 of its members were arrested in the sweep in eastern Punjab province, claiming it was an attempt to prevent them from staging a welcome-home rally upon the ousted leader’s return from London. The police, however, said about 100 were detained “to avoid violence.”
Sharif, ousted by the Supreme Court for corruption last July, was convicted recently and sentenced to 10 years over purchases of luxury apartments in London. He has not yet appealed the conviction and will be taken into custody as soon as he lands today in Lahore, Pakistan’s Information Minister Syed Ali Zafar said.
In a televised appeal from London on Wednesday, Sharif said he was not afraid of prison or even the gallows, and asked people to vote for his party in the July 25 general elections in Pakistan. His brother, Shahbaz Sharif, who now heads the PML-N, confirmed the former prime minister is due back today. He demanded that all PML-N supporters detained be immediately released.
With his return to Pakistan scheduled today to face certain arrest, ousted Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has once again stolen the limelight in the run-up to the general elections on July 25.
Sharif and his daughter Mariam Nawaz are scheduled to land at Lahore international airport from London this evening in a bid to lift the election campaign of their ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) party, which has been fading in their absence.
Sharif’s main rival Imran Khan, chairman of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), was seen as the ultimate beneficiary of the situation as the Sharif family went away to London to tend to Sharif’s ailing wife, Kulsoom Nawaz Sharif, who has cancer and is on a ventilator.
Authorities in Pakistan, however, are in a fix on how to stop hundreds of thousands of supporters who are gearing up to welcome back Sharif and his daughter today on what analysts have called a “historic” day in Pakistani politics: never before has a political leader flown back to Pakistan to face jail after being convicted by a court.
PML-N officials in Lahore said yesterday that police had detained hundreds of members of the party in an attempt to stifle its ability to launch street protests. Mohammad Mahdi, PML-N media coordinator, said that nearly 500 workers had been detained in a “massive crackdown,” including raids on the homes of a number of some of the party’s local councillors.
Preventive arrests
While Sharif’s close party supporters are sceptical about his return today, the former prime minister is most likely to prove them wrong once he lands in Lahore, giving a major boost to his election campaign and help him garner sympathy votes regardless of the fact whether he and his daughter are taken straight to jail.
But some PML-N members have also said the preventive arrest of workers who handle street level organising will make it harder for them to stage rallies and protests on Sharif’s return, when he will challenge the verdict and sentence against him.
Sharif was convicted and sentenced to prison in absentia by a Pakistani anti-corruption court last week, in a verdict that is likely to further disrupt an already chaotic campaign for national elections.
The sentence, 10 years in prison and a fine of $10.6 million, came almost a year after Pakistan’s Supreme Court removed Sharif from office and less than five months after the court barred him from holding office for life.
Corruption charges
His daughter Maryam Nawaz, who has been pitched as his political heir and a potential prime minister, has also been sentenced to seven years for “abetment” after she was found to be “instrumental in concealing the properties of her father”. She has also been disqualified from contesting the elections.
The case stemmed from the so-called Panama Papers leak that revealed undeclared luxury properties owned by the Sharif family in London since 1993. The four flats are in Avenfield House on London’s Park Lane. The Panama Papers leak in 2015 showed that Sharif’s children had links to offshore companies, which were allegedly used to channel funds and buy foreign assets.
Addressing the media in London, Sharif vowed he would return to Pakistan come what may. “Despite seeing the bars of prison in front of my eyes, I am going to Pakistan,” Sharif said at a gathering at a hotel in central London’s Mayfair district on Wednesday. “I ask the people, especially women, to come out of their homes like tigers, and cross all barricades to reach the Lahore airport. No one can stop a mass gathering of the people,” he said.
“It is not easy to leave my wife on a ventilator in a hospital but I am returning along with my daughter for our nation. I am coming back even if they send me to the gallows.” he said.
“We used to hear about ‘a state within a state’ but now things have gone to the extent that there’s ‘a state above the state’. July 25 will be a defining moment in the country’s history,” Sharif said, urging people to vote for “civilian supremacy”.
Sharif has been Pakistan’s prime minister three times but never completed a term.
He also told reporters in London that the military’s main spy agency has intimidated the PML-N’s election candidates and has told them to switch parties or run as independents.
Massive rally planned
A massive rally is expected to be led by Sharif’s younger brother and PML-N president Shahbaz Sharif in Lahore. Clashes between supporters and security forces are imminent, though Punjab’s provincial government has denied allegations of victimisation.
Local TV channels showed police placing shipping containers across the city to block roads order to prevent protesters reaching the airport. Shahbaz told his party workers in Lahore that “Nawaz Sharif rules
Nawaz Sharif rules the hearts of the people and that will become clear on July 13 when he will have a historic welcome on his arrival.”
Shahbaz Sharif | President of PML-N
Nawaz Sharif is convicted, so he has to be arrested first and can’t be allowed to roam around in the city. The National Accountability Bureau’s team and the Punjab Government have made arrangements to deal with the situation. It is their responsibility to maintain law and order.”
Syed Ali Zafar | Pakistan Information Minister
Crackdown against the PML-N is underway. Pakistan’s history is evident that use of state power to crush political parties provides new life to them… Ongoing operation against the PML-N is like an oxygen for it.”
Kamran Khan | Pakistani political analyst
the hearts of the people and that will become clear on July 13 when he will be have historic welcome on his arrival,” he said.
Syed Talat Hussain, a leading journalist in Pakistan tweeted: “Hundreds of party workers arrested in Lahore and elsewhere before Nawaz and Mariam’s arrival in one of the widest crackdown in recent years. And this is by the caretaker government that is supposed to supervise fair polls.”
Another top journalist and political analyst Kamran Khan tweeted: “Crackdown against the PML-N is underway. Pakistan’s history is evident that use of state power to crush political parties provides new life to them… Ongoing operation against the PMLN is like an oxygen for it.”
It is not easy to leave my wife on a ventilator in a hospital but I am returning along with my daughter for our nation. I am coming back even if they send me to the gallows… We used to hear about ‘a state within a state’ but now things have gone to the extent that there’s ‘a state above the state’.”
Nawaz Sharif | Ousted Pakistan prime minister