Islamabad: With the arrest of former Pakistan prime minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi on Thursday, the country’s two former prime ministers and a president are now under imprisonment over corruption charges.
Two more former prime ministers Yusuf Raza Gilani and Raja Parvez Ashraf are making rounds of the courts over similar charges, says a report by Urdu daily Jang.
According to the paper, the Pakistani establishment hasn’t been kind to its prime ministers and presidents. Prime ministers Liyaqat Ali Khan and Benazir Bhutto were assassinated while prime minister Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto was hanged to death.
Abbasi has been arrested in connection with the liquefied natural gas (LNG) scam, where he and others are accused of illegally awarding LNG terminal contracts for a period of 15 years to a company of their liking in violation of defined rules, causing losses to the state exchequer.
Sharif is serving a seven-year prison term at Lahore’s Kot Lakhpat Jail in the Al–Azizia Steel Mills case, while Zardari is in jail in connection with a fake accounts case.