Pakistan’s anti-graft agency arrests former PM in multi-billion rupee case

Pakistan's anti-corruption agency on Thursday arrested former prime minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi in a multi-billion-rupee import contract.

Last year, the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) had ordered an inquiry against Abbasi, Sharif and others “for granting a 15-year contract of LNG terminal to a company of their liking in violation of rules and by misuse of their powers, which caused (the) national exchequer a loss of billions of rupees”.

A NAB team intercepted Abbasi's car at Thokar Niaz Baig in Lahore and arrested him. He initially resisted the arrest but eventually conceded.

“The government has buried Pakistan’s economy and (is) now arresting our leaders to divert the masses’ attention from the real issues,” Shehbaz Sharif, Pakistani opposition leader and head of Pakistan Muslim League (PML-N), told a press briefing in Lahore.

“I believe today is yet another black day in Pakistan’s history,” Ahsan Iqbal, a senior parliamentarian from Abbasi’s Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) party, told reporters.

Iqbal accused Prime Minister Imran Khan of trying to suppress opposition.

“We are not afraid of your fascist acts. Don’t think that you will gag our voices through such arrests,” he said.

Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, head of the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP), the other main opposition force, condemned Abbasi’s arrest as what he called part of a government “witchhunt” against elected representatives.

The government has rejected opposition accusations of using the National Accountability Bureau, an independent body, to suppress its critics and opponents.

It says corruption by past governments is the main reason for an economic crisis that has forced Pakistan to seek a $6 billion loan package from the International Monetary Fund, its 13th IMF bailout since the 1980s.