Pakistani authorities arrested ousted Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and his daughter Maryam on Friday night shortly after their plane touched down at Lahore airport. 

Sharif faces a 10 year prison sentence after being found guilty in absentia of corruption charges last week. 

The former prime minister has however claimed the charges and subsequent court ruling was part of a conspiracy to deny his party a second term after the July 25 elections. 

According to the UK’s Guardian, military police boarded Sharif’s flight soon after it landed from Abu Dhabi, after taking off from London. 

The paramilitary rangers also arrested Maryam, his daughter, who was also sentenced in absentia last week to seven years in prison. 

The trial centered around where the family had gotten money to own four luxury apartments in London’s Park Lane. 

The Guardian reports that as the political drama unfolded in Lahore, fears of violence surged ahead of the upcoming elections, after a suicide bomber killed 132 people attending a political rally earlier in the day in Balochistan province.

Speaking to the Guardian on board the Etihad flight before being taken into custody, Sharif said: “Who wants to go to jail?”

“But it is a very small price to pay for my mission, which is to establish the sanctity of the vote in Pakistan,” he added. 

Sharif plans to appeal against his conviction but the Guardian reports that analysts doubt he would receive bail before the election.  

According to the Guardian, sympathy for Sharif has risen during the illness of his wife, Kulsoom, who is in a coma in a London hospital after treatment for throat cancer. 

In a parting photograph shared widely on social media, Sharif leans over her sickbed and touches her brow with a gloved hand, while Maryam wipes her eyes.

Sharif’s return represents a high-stakes gamble, but could shake up an election race driven by accusations Pakistan’s powerful military is working behind the scenes to skew the contest in favor of ex-cricket hero Imran Khan. He describes Sharif as a “criminal” who deserves no support, media reports indicated.