Pakistani Opposition Leader Arrested on Charges of Corruption
Shehbaz Sharif, the leader of Pakistan’s largest opposition party, faces financial corruption charges. (Wikimedia Commons).
Pakistani authorities arrested Shehbaz Sharif, the leader of the country’s primary opposition party, on charges of corruption on September 28, the latest in a series of high-profile arrests made under the watch of Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan.
The government filed a case against Sharif worth 7 billion rupees ($95 million) in connection to a money laundering scheme after financial monitoring discovered almost 200 suspicious transactions from the Sharif family. Authorities had previously arrested Sharif in 2018 on separate charges of corruption related to his awarding of contracts as Chief Minister of the Punjab Province, Pakistan’s most populous province. Sharif made bail and walked free for four months, but later faced multiple inquiries in the lead-up to this most recent arrest.
Shehbaz Sharif heads the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), the largest party in Parliament besides the ruling party, Pakistan Tehreef-e-Insaf (PTI). Shehbaz’s brother and former Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif founded the PML-N. In 2018, though, the Supreme Court sentenced Sharif to ten years in prison on charges of corruption, hinting at Pakistan’s long history of corrupt governance.
Khan has made an anti-corruption drive a central feature of his platform ever since his election in 2018, with his government pursuing several cases against high-profile politicians such as former Pakistani President Asif Ali Sandari. However, some argue that these arrests have disregarded corruption within Khan’s own party. Meanwhile, his own allies, such as those in Pakistan’s immense military, remain in power. Some observers accused the military, whose various generals have ruled the country for more than half of its 64 years of independence, of promoting Khan’s election due to the former cricket star’s unwillingness to criticize their influence.
“The [government] seems reluctant in proceeding against people on one side of the political divide,” a Supreme Court verdict in a corruption case in July read. “While those on the other side are being arrested and incarcerated for months and years without providing any sufficient cause.”
After authorities arrested Sharif in Lahore, protests orchestrated by PML-N supporters broke out. The PML-N proclaimed that they would initiate further protests across the province of Punjab starting October 3, calling the arrest of Sharif unconstitutional and an attempt to intimidate the opposition.
“Shehbaz Sharif will face all of these false allegations,” Marriyum Aurangzeb, a spokesperson for the PML-N, said. “Imran Khan should not believe that we are afraid of these tactics.”