Nawaz Sharif in jail: Congress, BJP trade tweet taunts

Nawaz Sharif

The Congress on Saturday threw a taunting tweet at Prime Minister Narendra Modi, seeking his comments on the arrest of "dear friend" former Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and his daughter on corruption charges. The BJP responded with a jibe that all Congress leaders out on bail will be in jail soon.

"Nawaz Sharif has been arrested on corruption charges. We'd like to know what his dear friend, PM Modi has to say about this," the Congress said in a tweet.

The BJP returned the taunt in an apparent reference to many of its leaders out on bail, including MP Shashi Tharoor who was recently given an anticipatory bail in the Sunanda Pushkar suicide case.

"The people of this country are saying this to our Prime Minister: All the politicians who are roaming around India on bail will one day have to go to jail," the BJP tweeted.

Modi at a recently rally had compared the Congress with a "bail gaadi", or bullock cart in Hindi. "Some people are calling Congress ‘bail gaadi,' not bullock cart, because some of its top leaders and former ministers are out on bail," Modi said at an election rally in Rajasthan.

The Congress has repeatedly targeted Modi over his unscheduled visit to Pakistan to wish Sharif personally and attend the marriage ceremony of his grand-daughter on December 25, 2015.

However, it was followed by the terror attack on the airbase in Pathankot on January 1, 2016.

Sharif, 68, was arrested late on Friday after he was sentenced in absentia last week to 10 years in prison by an anti-corruption court over the purchase of high-end properties in London, dealing a serious blow to his party's bid days ahead of the July 25 polls.

His daughter Maryam, 44, was also convicted by the accountability court in what has come to be known as the Avenfield Apartments case and sentenced to a jail term of seven years.

While Sharif was found guilty of owning assets beyond his known sources of income, Maryam was convicted of aiding and abetting her father in covering up a "conspiracy".

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