Pakistan Opposition Leader Shehbaz Sharif Arrested in Graft Case

(Bloomberg) -- The leader of Pakistan’s largest opposition party, Shehbaz Sharif, was arrested in Lahore on Friday by the nation’s anti-graft agency.

Sharif, the president of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz, was detained in relation to a corruption case revolving around a government housing project, Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, a senior PML-N official and former prime minister, told Bloomberg by phone.

“This is political victimization, which we have seen already before the general elections,” Abbasi said from Islamabad. “We will protest it in the parliament peacefully like always.”

Sharif’s party was unseated by Prime Minister Imran Khan’s Movement for Justice in July’s national election. The PML-N denounced the results and claimed rampant military-led manipulation of the ballot. Former cricket star Khan in his victory speech promised he would launch a probe into the election complaints, but little has been done since.

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