Pakistan: Opposition leader arrested in corruption case

KARACHI, Pakistan Pakistan’s main opposition leader and three-time chief minister of the country’s largest Punjab province was arrested on Friday by anti-corruption authorities, officials confirmed. Shehbaz Sharif, the younger brother of three-time Premier Nawaz Sharif, was taken into custody by the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) in the northeastern city of Lahore in connection with a housing scam, a NAB spokesman told reporters. Shehbaz, also head of the main opposition Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz) party, is accused of granting illegal contracts to his favorites for construction of water treatment plants in Punjab -- the country’s political power base, and a stronghold of the PML(N). He will appear in an accountability court on Saturday, the NAB said. Several senior bureaucrats have already been arrested by the NAB in the case. Quoting unnamed officials, local broadcaster Geo TV reported that Shehbaz had been summoned by NAB officials for investigation but was taken into custody after he allegedly was unable to “satisfy” a three-member investigation team. Shehbaz's elder Nawaz Sharif has already been disqualified for life, and given a 10-year jail term in a corruption case. However, Islamabad's High Court last month suspended the jail term, and granted bail to the former three-time premier.