Pakistan’s Opposition leader Shahbaz Sharif arrested in money laundering case

Lahore, September 28

Pakistan’s Leader of the Opposition and PML-N President Shahbaz Sharif was arrested on Monday after the Lahore High Court rejected his bail plea in a Rs 7 billion (USD 41.9 million) cash laundering case.

Shahbaz, the youthful brother of former premier Nawaz Sharif, was taken into custody from the court docket’s premises, the place a lot of PML-N employees gathered forward of the listening to.

The nation’s anti-graft physique National Accountability Bureau (NAB) took him to its Lahore’s detention centre and can produce him to the accountability court docket for his bodily remand.

The LHC’s two-member bench headed by Sardar Ahemd Naeem rejected his bail after listening to the arguments from the NAB’s crew and Shahbaz’s lawyer.

The Imran Khan authorities final week filed the cash laundering case in opposition to 69-year-old Shahbaz, who served as chief minister of Punjab from 2008 to 2018, and his household.

Adviser to the Prime Minister on Interior and Accountability Shahzad Akbar on September 23 alleged that Shahbaz and his sons Hamza and Salman have been concerned in cash laundering by way of faux accounts.

Akbar mentioned the monetary monitoring unit had detected 177 suspicious transactions of Shahbaz’ household after which NAB began a probe.

He alleged that billions of rupees have been laundered by way of workers of the businesses owned by Shahbaz and his youngsters.

Akbar accused Shahbaz and Hamza of taking kickbacks and commissions in return for social gathering tickets and tasks to favourites.

Before his arrest, Shahbaz instructed media that Prime Minister Khan needed to have him arrested.

“It is the unholy alliance of Imran Khan and NAB that wanted to put me behind bars,” Shahbaz mentioned.

Reacting to his arrest, PML-N spokesperson Maryam Nawaz mentioned Shahbaz has been arrested solely as a result of he didn’t depart his elder brother.

Alleging that it was a political victimisation by the federal government, she mentioned, “This politics of vengeance cannot dampen the spirits of our workers.” PPP Chairperson Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari condemned Shehbaz’s arrest, saying that Prime Minister Khan was anxious after the Opposition events launched an alliance, Pakistan Democratic Movement, to oust the Imran Khan authorities.

The Opposition was anticipating sturdy response from the federal government following Nawaz Sharif’s assault on the army within the multi-party convention over every week in the past.

Sharif whereas addressing the convention by way of video hyperlink from London talked in regards to the Army’s involvement in politics, saying within the nation “there is a state above the state”. He mentioned the joint Opposition’s battle shouldn’t be in opposition to Khan however in opposition to those that imposed an “inefficient” man on the nation by way of a rigged elections in 2018.”

The Opposition is anticipating extra arrests. The NAB has already issued a name up discover to JUI-F chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman who can be main the joint opposition’s marketing campaign in opposition to the federal government in earnings past means case. — PTI