Former Prime Minister of Pakistan Nawaz Sharif Arrested

Nawaz Sharif was arrested in Lahore Airport after he landed in Pakistan along with his daughter Maryam. He has returned to Pakistan to face the sentence of 10 years in prison on corruption charges by a court. Though according to Nawaz Sharif it is a conspiracy by the military to stop his party a second term in the general election, which is due on 25 July.

Police arrested 68-year-old Nawaz Sharif on board as soon as the flight reached Lahore. Paramilitary Rangers also arrested his daughter Maryam, as on the 6th July verdict she was also sentenced with her father to seven years in the trial on charges of owning four luxury flats in London’s Park Lane, all these facts were surfaced in the 2016 leak of the Panama Papers.

On board, Nawaz Sharif said, “Who wants to go to jail? But it is a very small price to pay for my mission, which is to establish the sanctity of the vote in Pakistan”.

The arrest of Nawaz Sharif and his daughter has ignited protests by his party workers and supporters, alleging that the military is engineering the election in Pakistan this time and is promoting the main opposition party Pakistan Tehreek e Insaf (PTI), led by former Pakistani Cricketer Imran Khan. Though Military has time and again denied these allegations.

Election violence too started to unfold with the killing of 132 people in Balochistan Province by a suicide bomber during a political rally on the same day, Sharif, and his daughter were arrested.

Earlier this month, Pakistan’s anti-graft court, National Accountability Bureau, has ruled the judgment, that Nawaz Sharif and his family members have laundered money in the 1990s to pay the price of Park Lane apartments in London, which was proved by the Panama Papers leak.

As protests by the supporters and workers of Pakistani Muslim League (PML-N), Nawaz Sharif’s party took to the streets to protest against the arrest. More than 500 people were arrested and police issued curfew in Lahore, banning public gathering with the assembly of more than five people and stopped all communication by banning mobile and Internet connection.

Nawaz Sharif has always had a bitter relationship with the Military establishment of the country since the military ousted him in a bloodless coup in 1999. The harsh relationship reached its peak recently when Nawaz Sharif openly named an Army General in Pakistan’s intelligence service, ISI, as the person who is behind the attempts to force PML-N politicians to join the PTI.

Amidst all this, the Political experts are of the view that Nawaz Sharif would receive bail ahead of the election in the country and the arrest will play in favor of his party in the elections, turning Nawaz Sharif a martyr for civilian supremacy. He is expected to get sympathy vote too, as Sharif has left his wife Kulsoom, who is in a coma in a hospital in London after treatment for throat cancer to court his arrest returning to Pakistan.