Pakistan court jails opposition leader before by-elections
▶ Shehbaz Sharif is the brother of ousted prime minister Nawaz
Pakistani opposition leader Shehbaz Sharif was yesterday jailed for 10 days over a corruption case, stopping him from campaigning for his party before crucial by-elections next Sunday.
Mr Sharif is the younger brother of ousted prime minister Nawaz Sharif, who was sentenced this year to 10 years in prison after the Supreme Court removed him from power.
Friday’s arrest of Shehbaz Sharif by agents from the National Accountability Bureau in Lahore involved claims of corruption surrounding a low-cost housing project when Mr Sharif was chief minister of Punjab.
A court heard that in 2014 Mr Sharif illegally cancelled a contract with a building company and tried to award it to another for a bribe.
His lawyer, Azam Nazir Tarar, said the court ordered Mr Sharif to be remanded in custody for 10 days for interrogation.
Hundreds of activists from Mr Sharif’s Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz gathered outside the court, chanting slogans as police and army guarded the venue.
Mr Sharif denies any wrongdoing, and his brother has denounced the corruption cases against him and other party leaders as being politically motivated.
Mr Tarar said that Mr Sharif was improperly arrested on a warrant that was kept secret.
Mr Sharif went to the court for questioning in another corruption case involving a water purification scheme but was arrested on the housing project warrant instead.
“They cannot arrest the leader of the opposition in this manner,” the lawyer said.
Nawaz Sharif was arrested 10 days before the July 25 general election, which was won by Imran Khan, who now leads the government.
Mr Sharif was released from prison last month pending an appeal.
The Sharifs’ party came second in the general election. It denounced the polls as rigged, claiming the military and courts favoured Mr Khan’s party, a charge the army and judiciary deny.
Their party said Shehbaz Sharif’s arrest was intended to weaken the party before by-elections on October 14 for 11 parliamentary seats and 19 provincial assembly seats.
The voting could affect the slim majority Mr Khan’s coalition government holds in parliament, although many of the constituencies are considered to be strongholds of his Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf party.
The electoral contests are considered to be closer in the provincial assemblies and could end in the Sharifs’ party winning back control of Punjab.
Shehbaz Sharif denies any wrongdoing, and his brother denounced the corruption cases against him and other party leaders as being politically motivated