A team of National Accountability Bureau (NAB) on Sunday finally arrested Captain Muhammad Safdar Awan (retd), the son-in-law of former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, from the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz office situated on Sixth Road in Rawalpindi.
He surrendered himself before the authorities after a massive show of party's supporters in Rawalpindi. The NAB had geared up to arrest him after he was awarded one year rigorous imprisonment in the Avenfield corruption reference in which his wife and father-in-law too were awarded imprisonments.
However, NAB statement implied that Captain Safdar (retd), had to surrender due to continued raids by four teams of National Accountability Bureau. "He decided to surrender before NAB after continued raids of NAB four Investigation teams at his houses in Abbottabad, Mansehra and Haripur," said a press release issued by NAB. He has been shifted to NAB Rawalpindi office where his medical check-up has been completed. He will be produced before a NAB court today (Monday) at 10:00am.
The anti-corruption watchdog on Saturday obtained the arrest warrants and fielded its three teams in Haripur, Abbottabad and Mansehra to arrest Safdar. But they failed to arrest fugitive Safdar. The PML-N media cell earlier on Sunday shared an audio recording of Safdar saying he would surrender himself to authorities today (Sunday) on the directives of the party leadership. He also called upon PML-N leaders and workers to reach Liaquat Bagh, Rawalpindi, to show support. After it, the gathering swelled, with hundreds of supporters pouring into the streets to show their support. Shortly after, Safdar arrived in the capital where he was greeted by a large number of PML-N leaders and supporters who then took him to the streets of Rawalpindi's Liaquat Bagh area. The PML-N local leaders including Senator Chaudhry Tanveer, former MNAs Malik Abrar, Hanif Abbasi and Shakeel Awan and others were leading the rally. Supporters surrounded his vehicle and chanted slogans: 'Dekho, dekho, kon aya? Sher aya, sher aya" (look who is here, the lion is here), "Respect the vote", and "Go on Nawaz Sharif, we are with you."
Safdar himself was perched atop a double-cabin vehicle and briefly addressed the media gathered at the scene. He said he wishes to surrender in front of party leader Shahbaz Sharif. He said, "We have to decide how the country will be run. I am surrendering myself in order to set a foundation for democracy." He called upon the nation to support Nawaz Sharif in his fight for the 220 million citizens of the country.
A NAB team had reached the vicinity of the rally to arrest Safdar. The team in six vehicles contacted the Islamabad Inspector General of Police for assistance and requested a large contingent of police to deal with the crowd. During the procession, the police arrested Safdar on Murree Road Rawalpindi but party workers snatched him from them.
When the rally reached the party office on Sixth Road Rawalpindi, Safdar surrendered himself before the NAB team. Two high officials of NAB took Safdar into custody. Around 3,000 people surrounded his vehicle after he was taken into custody by NAB officials.
However, NAB made it clear that had Safdar been law-abiding, he should have surrendered before NAB the very first day after announcement of the judgement of the Accountability Court Islamabad. NAB statement said: "He is proved convicted and corrupt person who is posing himself as a pious man, which is contrary to his assets beyond known sources of income."
It urged the media not to air his live speeches which are against the law and code of conduct of PEMRA and do not try to glorify him. "NAB will also start legal proceedings against all those who have provided illegal shelter to a convicted person and corrupt person and all those who tried to stop and created hurdles in his smooth arrest as per law," it said, adding that NAB reserve the right to seek video of live coverage and recordings of all TV channels from PEMRA in order to identify the culprits and to proceed against them as per law.