Former Pakistan prime minister and chief of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Imran Khan was arrested on May 9 by country`s paramilitary Rangers from the premises of the Islamabad High Court.
Pakistan has a long history of its prime ministers getting snubbed, shot and arrested.
WION presents a timeline of former prime ministers of Pakistan who were arrested at various points since the country came into being in 1947.
January 1962, Huseyn Shaheed Suhrawardy
Huseyn Shaheed Suhrawardy was the fifth Prime Minister of Pakistan for about thirteen months between September 1956 and October 1957. After refusing to endorse General Ayub Khan's takeover of the government, he was banned from politics and was later accused of violating country's Elective Bodies Disqualification Order (EBDO). In Jan 1962, he was arrested and put in soliatary confinement under 1952 Security of Pakistan Act.
(Photograph:Others)
Sept 1977, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto
Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, who served as Pakistan prime minister from August 1973 to July 1977, was arrested in September 1977. He was arrested for conspiring to murder a political opponent in 1974, and was later sentenced to death by a military court under General Zia Ul-Haq's regime.
(Photograph:Others)
August 1985, Benazir Bhutto
Benazir Bhutto served as Pakistan’s prime minister twice (Dec 1998-Aug 1990 and Oct 1993-Nov 1996).
Under Zia-ul Haq’s dictatorship, Benazir arrived in Pakistan in August 1985 for her brother’s funeral and was sent to Sukkur jail.
(Photograph:Others)
July 2018, Nawaz Sharif
In July 2018, former Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif was arrested and given a 10-year sentence for corruption. He was released two months later.
In December 2018, Nawaz Sharif was jailed again and given a seven-year sentence in relation to his family’s ownership of steel mills in Saudi Arabia. In November 2019, he was allowed to leave the country to receive medical treatment. He has since not returned to Pakistan.
(Photograph:Reuters)
July 2019: Shahid Khaqan Abbasi
Abbasi served as prime minister of Pakistan from January 2017 and May 2018.
In July 2019, he was arrested by a 12-member NAB team for a multi-billion rupee alleged corruption scandal when he was the minister for petroleum and natural resources. He was granted bail and released from jail in February 2020.
(Photograph:ANI)
Shehbaz Sharif
Sharif expressed his views while addressing a ceremony in Islamabad for signing a memorandum of understanding (MoU) between Pakistan and China
(Photograph:AFP)
May 2023, Imran Khan
Imran Khan has been indicted in the Toshakhana corruption case, a day after he was arrested
(Photograph:Reuters)