Nov 20, 2023, 03:12 PM IST
Pakistan's cricket icon-turned-populist politician Imran Khan remains in prison since August 2023. But he is not the first former Pakistani PM to be jailed. The history is a lesson into the jailed fate that the military's dominance in Pakistani politics wrote for Pak politicians. Here's what they did whilst in jail.
Before being hanged by military dictator Zia ul-Haq's regime in April 1979, Bhutto was lodged next to a group of mentally disturbed prisoners "who hooted and howled all night", according to his daughter Benazir Bhutto's autobiography 'Daughter of the East'. Bhutto spent his last days reading holy scriptures and copies of Western news magazines.
Zulfikar's daughter Benazir twice served as Pakistani PM and was jailed on multiple occasions. When jailed in Pakistan's Sukkur jail in 1981 under Zia's regime, Bhutto describes reading a daily edition of Dawn newspaper which she "read slowly" to keep her brain stimulated throughout the day.
In September 2018, former Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif was sentenced to 7 years in prison in a corruption case. Sharif spent a 69-day jail ordeal. According to reports, Sharif had access to television and a regular newspaper routine and met his aides regularly in jail. Sharif, thus, managed to run the Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz) party from prison itself.
Khan is given books to read every night as per his wishes. The Pakistan-Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) leader is served chicken and mutton twice a week, according to reports in Pakistani media.