Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) leader and former foreign minister Khawaja Asif was on Tuesday arrested by the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) from Islamabad, a spokesperson for the bureau and PML-N spokesperson Marriyum Aurangzeb confirmed.
As per the details, Asif was taken into custody in the backdrop of an ongoing investigation into allegations of him possessing assets beyond known sources of income to the tune of whopping Rs260 million.
Aurangzeb said he was arrested from near PML-N general secretary Ahsan Iqbal’s house.
He has been taken to the NAB Rawalpindi office, Geo News reported citing sources. Reports said that a consultative session of the party is currently underway to debate whether PML-N will take part in senate elections.
Asif left the meeting and was moments later arrested near Iqbal’s residence. Aurangzeb said Asif will be presented before an accountability court tomorrow for remand.
While PML-N Vice President Maryam Nawaz among other party leaders are lauding Asif for his “undeterred support for Nawaz Sharif”, senior journalist and analyst Hamid Mir on his show Capital Talk said that the former foreign minister knew he would be arrested and had even made preparations beforehand for what he considered an “eventuality”.
“He had prepared a bag as well and would say that the NAB would arrest him soon,” said Mir.
When prompted by the anchor to comment whether Asif’s arrest was a “reactionary move” to Maryam Nawaz’s speech in Larkana on Sunday, Muhammad Zubair, who had also left the meeting to appear on the show, said, “Of course. When the popularity and impact [of the PDM] is on the rise, we knew that they would react in some way. And today, we have seen that reaction.”
