Shahbaz Sharif, Pakistan’s Opposition leader and the younger brother of former prime minister Nawaz Sharif, was arrested on Monday in a Rs 7-billion (US$ 41.9 million) money laundering case. The President of PML-N was taken into custody after his bail plea was rejected by the Lahore High Court.

The National Accountability Bureau (NAB), Pakistan’s anti-graft body, took Sharif to its Lahore’s detention centre, where he will be produced to the accountability court for his physical remand.

The Imran Khan government filed a money laundering case against the 69-year-old and his family alleging that they were involved in money laundering through fake accounts.

Shahzad Akbar, adviser to the Prime Minister on Interior and Accountability, on September 23 alleged that Shahbaz, who served as Punjab’s chief minister from 2008 to 2018, and his sons Hamza and Salman were involved in money laundering.

Akbar said the financial monitoring unit had detected 177 suspicious transactions of Sharif’s family after which NAB started a probe. He alleged that billions of rupees were laundered through employees of the companies owned by Sharif and his children.

The Prime Minister’s advisers accused Sharif and Hamza of taking kickbacks and commissions in return of party tickets and issuing projects to favourites.

A two-member bench headed by Sardar Ahmed Naeem of Lahore High Court, from where he was arrested, rejected Sharif’s bail plea, where a large number of PML-N workers had gathered ahead of the hearing.

Before his arrest, Shahbaz told media that Prime Minister Khan wanted to have him arrested.

“It is the unholy alliance of Imran Khan and NAB that wanted to put me behind bars,” Shahbaz said.

Reacting to his arrest, PML-N spokesperson Maryam Nawaz said Sharif has been arrested only because he did not leave his elder brother (Nawaz Sharif).

Alleging that it was political victimisation by the government, she said, “This politics of vengeance cannot dampen the spirits of our workers.” PPP Chairperson Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari condemned Shehbaz’s arrest, saying that Prime Minister Khan was worried after the Opposition parties launched an alliance, Pakistan Democratic Movement, to oust the Imran Khan government.

The Opposition was anticipating a strong reaction from the government following Nawaz Sharif’s attack on the military in the multi-party conference over a week ago.

Sharif, while addressing the conference via video link from London, talked about the Army’s involvement in politics, saying in the country “there is a state above the state.” He said that the Joint Opposition’s struggle is not against Khan but against those who imposed an “inefficient” man on the nation through rigged elections in 2018.”

The Opposition is anticipating more arrests. The NAB has already issued a call up notice to JUI-F chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman, who is also leading the joint opposition’s campaign against the government in income beyond means case.