New Delhi, Delhi, India

Former Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and his daughter Maryam are expected to be arrested later today at Abu Dhabi airport.

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The Sharifs will be arrested by a special team of Pakistan's National Accountability Bureau (NAB). 

Live updates: Nawaz Sharif, daughter Maryam to return to Pakistan today

Sharif and Maryam are returning from London, where they were attending to Sharif's wife's Kulsoom's treatment for cancer. 

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The father and daughter were recently sentenced to 10 and 7 years in jail in the Avenfield Reference case. 

The Sharifs will be kept at Abu Dhabi airport for seven hours, after which they will be flown to Lahore. 

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They are expected to reach Lahore at 6.15 pm where they will be kept at Adiala jail for a day before being transferred to Attock Fort. 

Sharif has accused Pakistan's army of conspiring against him ahead of the July 25 elections.  

"There was a time when we used to say a state within a state, now it's a state above the state," the BBC quoted Sharif as telling supporters of his Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) party in London on Wednesday.

"Despite seeing the bars of prison in front of my eyes, I am going to Pakistan."

The BBC quoted Sharif as calling for a "mass gathering of the people".

Thousands of people are expected to flock to Lahore airport Friday. 

There have also been reports of the arrests of hundreds of PML-N workers before the Sharifs' return. 

The Avenfield case refers to the purchase of four luxury flats in Avenfield House, London. The National Accountability Bureau accused the Sharifs of having bought the flats with money over and above their known sources of income. 

The Sharifs had denied the charge. 

The Avenfield Reference and two other corruption cases were filed against Nawaz Sharif by the NAB on the orders of the Supreme Court after the revelations in the Panama Papers which led to Sharif's ouster as Pakistan prime minister last year.