ISLAMABAD/LAHORE: Former prime minister Nawaz Sharif and his daughter, Maryam Nawaz, were arrested Friday night upon their arrival in Lahore, a week after being sentenced to prison in the Avenfield Properties case.
The father-daughter duo arrived in the city from Abu Dhabi at 8:50PM after their flight was delayed for over two hours. They had left London a day earlier.
A National Accountability Bureau (NAB) team took Sharif and his daughter Maryam in custody from the aircraft, while officials of the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) confiscated their passports.
Shortly afterwards, they were boarded on a special plane that took off for Islamabad. The flight landed at the new Islamabad International Airport at around 10:35PM after which the two were taken to the Adiala Jail in separate armoured personnel carriers escorted by police convoys.
Meanwhile, a notification issued by the Islamabad administration declared the rest house at the Sihala Police Training College in the capital as a sub-jail to keep the two figures, with immediate effect and until further orders.
However, sources said authorities had decided to keep the two at Adiala Jail for now.
Meanwhile, the Ministry of Law and Justice issued a notification stating that the accountability court would conduct a trial of references against Nawaz and others at the Adiala Jail.
Earlier, on Friday night, accountability court judge Justice Muhammad Bashir signed the arrest warrants for the father-daughter duo.
Last week, an accountability court in Islamabad sentenced the former three-time premier to a total of 11 years in prison and slapped a £8-million fine (Rs1.3-billion) for "owning assets disproportionate to known sources of income".
His daughter, Maryam, on the other hand, was sentenced to eight years with a £2-million fine (Rs335-million), while her husband, Captain (retd) Safdar, was handed a one-year prison sentence.
Sharif's sons, Hassan and Hussain, have been absconding and declared 'proclaimed offenders' in the case.
'My resolve can't be shaken'
Speaking to the media from Abu Dhabi airport, Sharif said Pakistan had been turned into a battleground.
"There are blockades everywhere. People have been arrested and they are being given the message to not come to the airport," the former premier had said.
"There are ten days left in the election. Is this how things happen in elections?"
He had asserted if the elections do not remain credible, the results would not be accepted.
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