Imran Khan is the latest in a long line of Pakistani Prime Ministers who have been arrested

Colombo (News 1st) - Imran Khan is the latest in a long line of Pakistani Prime Ministers who have been arrested either prior to or after leaving office.

Huseyn Shaheed Suhrawardy, who served as PM in 1956-57, was the first to be arrested in 1958 when he refused to acknowledge the legitimacy of the military government that had seized power. He was held without trial. 

Zulfikar Ali Bhutto was PM from 1973-77 and was arrested in 1977 after being ousted by the military, on charges of conspiring to murder a political opponent. He was executed in 1979, sending shock waves around the world.

Bhutto's daughter Benazir Bhutto served as PM from 1988-90 and again from 1993-96. She was arrested several times before becoming PM, first from 1979-80 after her father's execution; and again from 1981-84. She was assassinated in a bomb blast during her election campaign in 2007.

Nawaz Shariff was Pakistan's longest-serving Prime Minister, serving three terms from 1990-93, 1997-99, and 2013-17. He was arrested in 2007 shortly after he returned from seven years in exile. He was exiled to Saudi Arabia for another three years. After his third term as PM, he was arrested twice more in 2018 before he went into permanent exile.

Shahid Khawan Abbasi served as PM from 2017-18, and was arrested for corruption in 2019. He was released in 2020.

Pakistan's current premier, Shehbaz Sharif, was arrested in 2020 on corruption charges and released in 2021, prior to becoming PM in 2022.