As Imran Khan was arrested and sentenced to three years jail term in a corruption case, Pakistan has maintained its reputation for imprisoning former Prime Ministers while avoiding action against military dictators who routinely violated the Constitution. Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Khan was sentenced o three years in prison on the charges of hiding the proceeds from the sale of state gifts from the Toshakhana. Subsequently, he was arrested from his Zaman Park residence in Lahore after an Islamabad-based sessions court's verdict on Saturday.
The Toshakhana is a Cabinet Division department that houses gifts given to leaders and government officials by foreign heads of state and dignitaries. According to reports, Khan bought certain gifts, including a valuable watch presented to him by the Saudi crown prince, and sold them for a profit. The cricketer-turned-politician was entitled to purchase the gifts from Toshakhana as well as carry out the sale, but he failed to inform the Election Commission of Pakistan about the money he made, for which he was charged with concealment, a crime under the law.
The decision came a day after the Islamabad High Court (IHC) put away a session court's decision to maintain the viability of the Toshakhana body of evidence for criminal procedures against Khan. However, 70-year-old Khan is not the first former Pakistani Prime Minister to be imprisoned as the country has a long history of unsavoury treatment of elected leaders.
List of Pakistani PMs who were jailed
Hussain Shaheed Suhrawardy: He served as the fifth Prime Minister. In January 1962, he was arrested and imprisoned on bogus charges of "anti-state activities." According to reports, his actual crime was his refusal to back military ruler General Ayub Khan.
Zulfikar Ali Bhutto: He served as the ninth Prime Minister of Pakistan. He was arrested on the charges of conspiracy to murder a political opponent in 1974. He was sentenced to death and hanged on April 4, 1979.
Benazir Bhutto: She served as the premier twice from 1988 to 1990 and again from 1993 to 1996. The nation's only woman Prime Minister was arrested several times -- first in 1985 and put under house arrest for 90 days. She was jailed in August 1986 for speaking out against military dictator Ziaul Haq at a demonstration in Karachi. In April 1999, she was sentenced to five years in prison for corruption, as well as being disqualified and fined more than £5 million. She escaped arrest as she was in self-exile. Bhutto was assassinated on December 27, 2007, when she was campaigning for her party ahead of elections in January 2008.
Nawaz Sharif: He served as the Prime Minister of Pakistan for three non-consecutive terms. He is the longest-serving Prime Minister of Pakistan, having served a total of more than 9 years across three tenures. He was arrested in 1999 after General Pervez Musharraf took over and later on exiled for 10 years. In a corruption case, Sharif and his daughter Maryam Nawaz were sentenced to ten years in prison in July 2018. The same year in December, he was sentenced to seven years in prison in the Al-Azizia Steel Mills corruption case. In 2019, he travelled to London for treatment and never returned. Later, he went to London for treatment in 2019 and never came back.
Sardar Shahid Khaqan Abbasi: He served as the 21st Prime Minister of Pakistan from August 2017 to May 2018. He was arrested in July 2019 in connection with a Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) corruption case. He was later granted bail on the matter.
Imran Khan: He served as the 22nd Prime Minister of Pakistan from August 2018 until April 2022. was also arrested on May 9, 2023, in another corruption case but released a couple of days after the intervention by the Supreme Court. He was sentenced to three years in jail in the Toshakhana case on August 5, 2023.
No trials against military rulers
It is worth mentioning here that none of the four military rulers - Auyb Khan, Yahya Khan, Ziaul Haq, and Pervez Musharraf - were brought to trial for overthrowing democratic governments and violating the Constitution. The powerful Pakistan Army, which has dominated the coup-prone country for more than half of its 75-year history, has held significant power in security, foreign policy, and politics.
(With inputs from PTI)
ALSO READ: Imran Khan arrested from his Lahore residence in Toshakhana case after 3 years sentence in jail
