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Former Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif is en route from London to Lahore and will be arrested during his landing Friday night before a national vote which his party says was manipulated.
Sharif and his daughter Maryam, who were handed prison terms of 10 and 7 years respectively last week by an anti-corruption court, arrived in Abu Dhabi and will be transferred to Lahore. National Liaison Teams have been tasked with arresting them when they arrive at the airport and will be transported by helicopter to Islamabad, according to an agency official.
"He is sentenced, so he must be arrested. Interim Minister of Information, Syed Ali Zafar, said in comments broadcast on Thursday.
The former ruling party led by the Fallen prime minister accused security forces of arresting hundreds of Loyalists in Lahore and placing the city on lock-down. "Shuakat Javed, the interim interior minister of the provincial government, told reporters that mobile phone services were suspended in regions due to terrorist threats and that 124 people had been arrested, although none of them was a candidate or leader. through the city to block the roads to prevent the protesters from reaching the airport
Sharif's dramatic return before the July 25 elections follows a corruption scandal that ravaged Pakistani politics showed that his family used offshore accounts to buy high-end apartments in London. The former prime minister was disqualified from the top rank by the Supreme Court last July, his third eviction since the 1990s.
The Sharif family has always denied any wrongdoing and criticized the judicial treatment of his case . Mr Sharif said that the powerful army of the nation – which had ousted him during a coup in 1999 – conspired to manipulate the vote against his party, the Islamic League of Pakistan -Nawaz, in favor of his main political rival Imran Khan. Pakistan for almost half of its existence, repeatedly denied interfering in elections. Khan, a former national cricket captain, has also criticized the fact that he is a tool for alleged attempts by the military to bring a flexible government to power.
Sharif's return is seen as a potential turning point for his party's electoral prospects. , which has lost ground to Khan's justice movement, according to a Gallup Pakistan poll released this month. The Sharif family tried to portray themselves as a victim of the military establishment.
"It's an attempt to charge its supporters," said Umbareen Javaid, chair of the department of political science at the University of Punjab.
told reporters in London that the main spy agency of the military intimidated candidates for PML-N elections and told them to change party or stand as independents . Sharif's younger brother, Shehbaz, is leading rallies in Lahore to get support from the former prime minister and said the arrest of party workers equates to a "pre-polluted rigging" . "
"This rally is illegal" Javed said, adding that the force can be used on political workers trying to get closer to the airport. "We are neutral and here to enforce the law."
The Pakistani TV regulator said on Thursday that it was "seriously concerned" that local broadcasters broadcast political press conferences "containing defamatory and pejorative content targeting various state institutions specifically judicial and armed forces."
A wave of violence has also spoiled the small party campaign. Haroon Bilour, a leading leader of the Awami National Party, was killed in a suicide bombing in the northwestern city of Peshawar, while Akram Khan Durrani, of Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal, escaped. an explosion in northern Bannu. "Condemn firmly the terrorist attack against Akram Durrani," said Imran Khan on Twitter. "There seems to be a conspiracy to sabotage the July 25 elections but the Pakistani people will not allow any designs to target these historic elections."
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