ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (AP) -- Pakistan's military government enacted a tough new anti-corruption law Wednesday and began arresting hundreds of the country's wealthiest people.
The new law disqualifies politicians found guilty of corruption or defaulting on loans from holding office for 21 years. It also provides for a jail term of up to 14 years.The arrests began just hours after a Tuesday deadline expired for those with outstanding bank loans to repay their debts or face criminal charges.
One of the first major promises of Army Chief Gen. Pervaiz Musharraf, after taking power in the coup last month, was to clean up the country's corrupt political system and revive the economy.
It's estimated that the equivalent of as much as $4 billion is owed to banks by defaulters, most of whom are among Pakistan's wealthy elite, government officials said.
Banks, which were taken over by the government in the 1970s, were coerced into giving loans to the powerful, who rarely provided sufficient collateral.
Those arrested Wednesday included former chief ministers, major landowners, industrialists and politicians belonging to all of Pakistan's political parties.
Soldiers in army jeeps roared up to the palatial home of former lawmaker Nawaz Kokhar on the outskirts of the federal capital, Islamabad, and arrested him.
In the northwestern border city of Peshawar, a leader of the left-leaning Awami National Party, Bashir Ahmed Bilour, also was arrested, police said, refusing to give additional details of the arrest.
In Pakistan's most populous province of Punjab, there were reports from police and intelligence agencies that as many as 450 people were arrested Wednesday, some for outstanding loans and others on charges of corruption.