Senior Pakistani Opposition leader arrested by anti-narcotics officials

Rana Sanaullah, a senior leader of Opposition Pakistan Muslim League-N party and chief of the party's Punjab unit was arrested on Monday by authorities for allegedly possessing huge amount of drugs, media reports said.

Sanaullah, a close aide to the Sharif brothers -- Nawaz and Shehbaz -- was arrested while he was traveling from Faisalabad to Lahore, DawnNewsTV quoted sources in the Anti Narcotics Force (ANF) as saying.

The senior PML-N leader was arrested from the Islamabad-Lahore motorway near the Sukheki area, the sources said.

"Huge amount of illicit drugs was recovered from Sanaullah's car, however, the weight is being measured to know the exact amount," The Express Tribune quoted ANF officials as saying.

PML-N President Shehbaz strongly condemned the arrest and said that Sanaullah was arrested without any allegation and case against him. He termed it the worst example of "lawlessness and political revenge".

Sharif alleged that it was another example of using state institutions against political opponents. He demanded of the government to produce Sanaullah before a court of law.

PML-N Vice President Maryam Nawaz, the daughter of former prime minister Nawaz Sharif, blamed Prime Minister Imran Khan for the arrest, accusing him of being "directly behind" the arrest.

The PMN-L party officials said the last contact with Sanaullah was established while he was near Lahore toll plaza at around 2.30 pm local time and since then the party was unaware of his whereabouts.

Sanaullah's daughter told The Express Tribune that she received a message through motorways' M-Tag service that her father's vehicle entered into Lahore at around 3.20pm.

A politician always in the news because of his fiery rhetoric, Sanaullah is a former minister for law and parliamentary affairs of Punjab province.