Nawaz Sharif Arrested On Corruption Charge

Former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and his daughter and political heir Maryam were arrested at the Lahore airport Friday night on corruption charges as they returned to the country in an attempt to rally their beleaguered party days before national elections.

The arrests came the same day the election campaign took a deadly turn. More than 130 people, including a candidate from another party, were killed in two militant attacks elsewhere in Pakistan.

The Sharifs were convicted in absentia last week and sentenced to lengthy prison terms in connection with their ownership of expensive properties in London, a case they say was manufactured by their political foes and the country’s powerful military.

Though the Sharifs cannot run in the July 25 election, analysts said they felt compelled to return from London, where they had been for many weeks, to give a lift to their party in what has become a highly charged campaign.

Mr. Sharif, a three-time prime minister who has been shadowed by corruption accusations throughout his career, is also concerned about cementing a legacy as a champion of civilian governance and opponent of the military’s overarching role, they said.

High drama surrounded the arrests as the authorities blocked roads, shut down mobile and internet service and deployed thousands of officers to thwart supporters of the Sharifs from reaching the airport. The police arrested at least 600 workers of Mr. Sharif’s political party, Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz, or PML-N, on security-related charges in the past several days.

Officials from the National Accountability Court, the anti-corruption watchdog, placed the Sharifs under arrest as they arrived on an Etihad Airways commercial flight shortly before 9 p.m. They were transferred to Adiala Prison on the outskirts of Rawalpindi.

“Pakistan is at a decisive turning point,” Mr. Sharif said in a recorded video message to supporters that cast doubt on the credibility of the coming election. Photos of Mr. Sharif saying goodbye in London to his ill wife, Kulsoom Nawaz Sharif, went viral in the country’s social media.

The show of force by the government in Punjab Province, which includes Lahore, was effective in turning back thousands of the Sharifs’ supporters from the airport, but it also appeared to have engendered a backlash.