Islamabad: Pakistan’s anti-corruption agency arrested a former prime minister, Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, on Thursday, a spokesman for the agency, the National Accountability Board (NAB), said.
He gave no details on the grounds for the arrest but a copy of the arrest warrant shared by Abbasi’s PML-N party, indicated that he was accused of “corruption and corrupt practices”.
Abbasi, who served for less than a year following the resignation of former premier
Nawaz Sharif in 2017, was arrested while on his way to a news conference in the eastern city of Lahore.
“They said they were from the NAB and took away Shahid Khaqan Abbasi with them,” Ahsan Iqbal, a senior PML-N parliamentarian told a television station.
Last year, the NAB ordered an inquiry into both Abbasi and Sharif over a liquefied natural gas terminal project. Sharif is serving a seven-year sentence after being convicted in a separate corruption case.