Pakistan's history of jailing its former Prime Ministers

Pakistan's history of jailing elected leaders while letting military dictators go unpunished continues with Imran Khan's arrest. From Hussain Shaheed Suhrawardy to Nawaz Sharif, no PM has served a full 5-year term. Despite numerous violations of the Constitution, military dictators have never faced justice.

With Imran Khan's sentencing and quick arrest on August 5 in a corruption case, Pakistan has maintained its notoriety for jailing former Prime Ministers while shying away from taking any action against military dictators who repeatedly violated the Constitution.

Mr. Khan, the chief of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party was arrested from his Zaman Park residence in Lahore after an Islamabad-based sessions court sentenced him to three years in prison on the charges of hiding the proceeds from the sale of state gifts from the Toshakhana.

The Toshakhana is a department under the Cabinet Division that stores gifts given to rulers and government officials by heads of other governments and foreign dignitaries. Khan bought some gifts including a precious watch given to him by the Saudi crown prince and sold the same for profit.

The 70-year-old leader was authorised to buy the gifts from Toshakhana and also carry out the sale but failed to inform the Election Commission of Pakistan about the money he made for which he was accused of concealment which is a crime under the law.

In better times, M. Khan might have escaped with a warning or a fine by the court, but he had already run out of luck when he fell out with the powerful military establishment that led to his ouster from the government in April last year.

Mr, Khan is not the first Pakistani premier to end up in jail, the country has numerous unenvious examples of the treatment meted out to elected leaders in its sordid history.

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