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Pakistan’s Anti-Graft Agency Arrests Former Premier Abbasi

Pakistan’s anti-graft agency arrested former premier, latest opposition politician to be targeted by PM’s corruption crackdown.

Pakistan’s Anti-Graft Agency Arrests Former Premier Abbasi
Shahid Khaqan Abbasi. (Photographer: Asim Hafeez/Bloomberg)

(Bloomberg) -- Pakistan’s anti-graft agency arrested former premier, Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, the latest high-profile opposition politician to be targeted by Prime Minister Imran Khan’s corruption crackdown.

Abbasi -- who is part of nation’s second-largest party -- was detained in Rawalpindi, the military garrison city adjacent to the capital Islamabad, Nawazish Ali, a spokesman for the National Accountability Bureau, said by phone on Thursday.

Ali didn’t give reasons for the arrest. But the former prime minister earlier on Thursday recorded a statement with the agency, which is is probing the awarding of an LNG terminal contract during his previous role as petroleum minister. Abbasi, an official in the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz, has denied any wrongdoing.

Pakistan’s Anti-Graft Agency Arrests Former Premier Abbasi

Multiple opposition politicians, including Asif Ali Zardari, a former president who co-chairs the Pakistan Peoples Party, have been detained and quizzed in recent months on what they call trumped-up charges. Critics claim that Khan, with approval of the powerful military, is using state agencies to hound his opponents.

However, the former cricket star’s administration say the anti-corruption agency is an independent body. That hasn’t stopped Pakistan’s opposition parties uniting in complaining that they are being unjustly victimized by Khan, who came to power last summer after campaigning against systemic corruption.

Abbasi’s arrest follows last year’s conviction and jailing of his party’s leader and former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, who has also denied any wrongdoing.

To contact the reporter on this story: Kamran Haider in Islamabad at khaider2@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Ruth Pollard at rpollard2@bloomberg.net, Chris Kay, Khalid Qayum

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