ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s National Accountability Bureau (NAB) arrested Shahbaz Sharif, the former chief minister of Punjab, in relation to a corruption case commonly referred to as the Ashiana Housing Case on Friday.
Sharif is currently the leader of the opposition in the National Assembly, the president of the Pakistan Muslim League — Nawaz party (PML-N), and is the younger brother of former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, who was recently released on bail after an accountability court sentenced him to 10 years in prison on corruption charges in July.
Shahbaz Sharif was arrested in Lahore when he appeared before an investigation team at NAB’s offices, to record his statement in another case — the “Saaf Pani” scandal.
Raja Riaz, an Arab News correspondent in Lahore, reports that security around the NAB offices in Lahore has been significantly increased and that the country’s paramilitary force, the Rangers, has been deployed in the area.
The Ashiana Housing Case involves government contracts worth billions of rupees allegedly being awarded unfairly by the provincial government on the instructions of Shahbaz Sharif when he was chief minister.
The anti-graft body has been probing the housing scam for several months. Previously, it arrested provincial bureaucrat Ahad Cheema, who was said to be close to the former chief minister.
In one instance, Cheema is accused of having awarded a Rs14 billion-contract to a company that was not technically qualified to fulfil it at a time when he was working as the director general of the Lahore Development Authority.
The media director of the National Assembly of Pakistan, Moshsin Iqbal, told Arab News that the National Assembly Secretariat had not yet been officially informed of the arrest.
According to Pakistani law, the authorities cannot arrest a member of parliament without first informing the speaker of the National Assembly.
According to the NAB press release, Shahbaz Sharif will be presented to the accountability court on Saturday morning.
The PML-N has already accused the ruling Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) administration and certain other state institutions of victimizing their political rivals.
Meanwhile some PTI leaders, including Information Minister Fawad Chaudhry, have indicated that more arrests should be expected in the next week, although he told reporters in Jhelum that the cases in question were initiated by the previous — PML-N — government.
Chaudhry stressed that the NAB is a politically independent entity to which the government can only provide “organizational support.”
NAB arrests Shahbaz Sharif in Ashiana Housing case
NAB arrests Shahbaz Sharif in Ashiana Housing case
- Shahbaz Sharif is leader of the opposition and former chief minister of Punjab
- The PML-N has already claimed the ruling party is victimizing its political rivals
