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LAHORE, Pakistan (Reuters) – Pakistani opposition leader Shehbaz Sharif was sentenced on Saturday to 10 days in jail after being arrested in a corruption case, his lawyer said, which means that he had been arrested. he will not be able to campaign for his party before crucial by-elections. the week.
PHOTO FILE: Supporters of Shahbaz Sharif, brother of former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and leader of the Pakistan Muslim League – Nawaz (PML-N) uses his cell phone to take pictures of him during the night. a rally for the general elections in Lyari district of Karachi, Pakistan on June 26, 2018. REUTERS / Akhtar Soomro
Sharif is the younger brother of ousted Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, sentenced to 10 years in prison earlier this year by an anti-corruption court after the Supreme Court dismissed him.
The arrest of Shehbaz Sharif by agents of the National Accountability Office (NAB) in Lahore on Friday implicated a case of alleged corruption in a low-rent housing project while Sharif was chief minister of Punjab province.
A NAB court on Saturday heard charges that Sharif illegally canceled a contract with a construction company in 2014 and attempted to award it to another company, allegedly for a bribe.
The court ordered his interrogation for ten days, his lawyer Azam Nazir Tarar said.
Hundreds of militants from Pakistan's Muslim Sharif league gathered in court, chanting pro-Sharif slogans as police and army guards watched the scene.
Sharif denies any wrongdoing and his brother has denounced the corruption cases against him, as well as those of other party leaders, as being of a political nature.
Attorney Tarar said Sharif was illegally arrested on a secret warrant. Sharif went to court to be questioned in another corruption case involving a water purification program, but was arrested as a result of a warrant for a real estate project.
"They can not stop the opposition leader in this way," said the lawyer.
Former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif was arrested 10 days before the July 25 general election, won by the cricket star, now a politician, Imran Khan, who now heads the new government. He was released from prison last month while waiting for an appeal.
The Muslim Muslim League of Sharifs-Nawaz came in second in general elections. Their party denounced the rigging of the polling stations, alleging that the army and the courts had tipped the scales in favor of Khan's party, an accusation that the army and justice deny.
The PML-N said that the arrest of Shehbaz Sharif was intended to weaken the party before the October 14 by-elections.
The by-elections involve 11 parliamentary seats and 19 provincial assembly seats.
The vote could affect the slim majority of Khan's government coalition government in parliament, though many of its constituents are considered strongholds of its Pakistani party Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI).
The competitions are considered closer in the provincial assemblies and could allow the PML-N to regain control of the Punjab.
Written by Kay Johnson; Edited by Darren Schuettler
