LAHORE -- Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, a former prime minister of Pakistan, has been arrested and will appear before an anti-corruption court, officials said Thursday (July 18).
Abbasi was arrested in custody in Lahore and is set to appear in an anti-corruption court.
"He has been arrested and is expected to be produced before a NAB [National Accountability Bureau] court ... either today or tomorrow," a senior official with the NAB, an anti-corruption body, told AFP on the condition of anonymity.
A second official from the bureau confirmed the arrest.
Abbasi served as prime minister from August 2017 until May 2018.
His apprehension comes just weeks after former president Asif Ali Zardari was arrested in connection with charges of corruption.
Abbasi's immediate predecessor, Mian Muhammad Nawaz Sharif, is behind bars, after being sentenced to seven years in prison late last year for corruption.
Pakistan has battled corruption in an effort to reduce public cynicism that could lead to the embrace of extremist alternatives.
