From Benazir Bhutto to Imran Khan, Pakistan’s historical past of jailing former PMs

By Press Trust of India: With Imran Khan’s sentencing and fast arrest on Saturday in a corruption case, Pakistan has maintained its notoriety for jailing former prime ministers whereas shying away from taking any motion in opposition to navy dictators who repeatedly violated the Constitution.

Khan, the chief of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) social gathering was arrested from his Zaman Park residence in Lahore after an Islamabad-based classes court docket sentenced him to 3 years in jail on the fees of hiding the proceeds from the sale of state items from the Toshakhana.

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The Toshakhana is a division beneath the Cabinet Division that shops items given to rulers and authorities officers by heads of different governments and overseas dignitaries. Khan purchased some items together with a treasured watch given to him by the Saudi crown prince and offered the identical for revenue.

The 70-year-old chief was authorised to purchase the items from Toshakhana and in addition perform the sale however failed to tell the Election Commission of Pakistan in regards to the cash he made for which he was accused of concealment which is against the law beneath the legislation.

In higher instances, Khan might need escaped with a warning or a effective by the court docket, however he had already run out of luck when he fell out with the highly effective navy institution that led to his ouster from the federal government in April final 12 months.

Khan shouldn’t be the primary Pakistani premier to finish up in jail, the nation has quite a few unenvious examples of the remedy meted out to elected leaders in its sordid historical past.

The first on the checklist is Hussain Shaheed Suhrawardy, a Bengali politician from then East Pakistan who served because the fifth prime minister. He was arrested in January 1962 and put in jail on bogus prices of “anti-state activities”. His precise crime was his refusal to assist navy ruler General Ayub Khan.

Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, who served because the ninth prime minister, was arrested on the fees of conspiracy to homicide a political opponent in 1974. He was sentenced to demise and hanged on April 4, 1979.

Benazir Bhutto served because the premier twice from 1988 to 1990 and once more from 1993 to 1996. The nation’s solely lady prime minister was arrested a number of instances — first in 1985 and put beneath home arrest for 90 days.

In August 1986, she was arrested for denouncing the navy dictator Ziaul Haq at a rally in Karachi. In April 1999, she was sentenced to 5 years imprisonment for corruption and disqualified and fined greater than 5 million kilos. She prevented arrest as she was in self-exile.

Nawaz Sharif was arrested in 1999 after General Pervez Musharraf took over and in a while exiled for 10 years.

In July 2018, he was sentenced to 10 years in jail alongside along with his daughter Maryam Nawaz in a corruption case. In December of the identical 12 months, he was handed over seven years in jail within the Al-Azizia Steel Mills corruption case. He went to London for remedy in 2019 and by no means got here again.

Shahid Khaqan Abbasi was arrested in July 2019 in reference to a Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) corruption case however in a while, bailed out.

Imran Khan was additionally arrested on May 9, 2023 in one other corruption case however launched after a few days after the intervention by the Supreme Court. He was sentenced to 3 years in jail within the Toshakhana case on August 5, 2023.

Commenting on his conviction and arrest, well-known journalist and Geo News anchorman Hamid Mir stated that he was not the primary prime minister despatched to jail and is probably not the final one.

“First Hussain Shaheed Suhrawardy, then Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, then Benazir Bhutto, then Nawaz Sharif and now Imran Khan. Prime Ministers and politicians are always punished,” he tweeted.

He additionally stated that no prime minister within the historical past of Pakistan has but served their full five-year time period.

In stark distinction, not one of the 4 navy dictators – Auyb Khan, Yahya Khan, Ziaul Haq and Pervez Musharraf – confronted justice for toppling elected governments and subverting the Constitution.

The highly effective Pakistan Army, which has dominated the coup-prone nation for greater than half of its 75 years of existence, has wielded appreciable energy in issues of safety, overseas coverage in addition to politics.