Pakistan’s Ex-PM Imran Khan Joins Global List of Leaders Convicted on Corruption Charges

Fri Jan 17 2025
icon-facebook icon-twitter icon-whatsapp

Key points

  • Khan has earlier been convicted in State gifts case
  • The ex-PM is facing trial in multiple other cases
  • Al-Qadir Trust case involves an amount of 190m British pounds
  • Al-Qadir University to be given under government control

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s former prime minister, Imran Khan, convicted in the £190 million Al-Qadir Trust case, has joined a long list of world leaders who have been charged and sentenced over charges of corruption and misuse of authority while in office. The former prime minister was sentenced to 14 years in prison and his wife Bushra Bibi was sentenced to seven years on Friday. Bushra Bibi was fined Rs0.5 million and Imran Khan was fined Rs1 million. According to the court’s verdict, Al-Qadir University is to be given under government control. The former cricketer-turned-politician’s wife Bushra Bibi was arrested from the court room.

Strong democracies are usually competent enough to prosecute politicians, including top leaders, who commit corruption and misuse authority while in power.

Imran khan 01

On Friday, an accountability court in Pakistan sentenced the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) founder and his wife, Bushra Bibi, in the case also known as Al-Qadir Trust case. The couple was accused by the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) of adjusting PKR 50 billion—equivalent to £190 million at the time—returned by Britain’s National Crime Agency (NCA) to the Pakistani government in a settlement with a property tycoon.

Pakistan

The case involved a cabinet decision, approved by Khan’s government on December 3, 2019, to deposit the funds into the Supreme Court’s account on behalf of the tycoon, without disclosing the settlement’s details.

The NAB alleged that Khan and Bushra Bibi accepted land worth billions of rupees (Pakistani currency) from the tycoon to establish an educational institute, in return for granting legal cover to the tycoon’s assets. The Al-Qadir Trust was set up in Islamabad shortly after Khan’s government approved the agreement.

Khan, also facing trial in other cases, is one among several leaders worldwide whose actions in office have faced scrutiny, resulting in convictions in mature democracies as well as emerging economies.

Global examples of accountability

The prosecution of former leaders is seen as a symbol of strong democracies to ensure accountability and uphold the rule of law. In recent years, several leaders have been charged and convicted over corruption and misuse of authority. From the Americas to Asia, these cases underline the resilience of democratic principles and the rule of law.

Former French President Nicolas Sarkozy was sentenced in 2021 to a year in prison for corruption and influence peddling, following his attempt to secure confidential judicial information in exchange for favours.

Sarkozy became France’s second modern president convicted of corruption, after Jacques Chirac in 2011.

Pakistan

Chirac, president from 1995 to 2007, was convicted for embezzlement during his tenure as mayor of Paris. France’s ex-prime minister Francois Fillon was sentenced to four years in 2020 for fraud and misuse of public funds.

Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, Brazil’s current president, who also held the office from 2003 to 2010, faced a criminal conviction in 2017 for accepting a beachfront apartment from a construction firm in exchange for political favours. He was sentenced to nine years in prison; however, his conviction was annulled in 2021, allowing his political resurgence.

Pakistan

In October 2022, Lula won the closest election in the country’s history over Jair Bolsonaro. Currently, he is serving as Brazil’s president and awaiting a fresh trial.

South Africa’s former president Jacob Zuma was sentenced to 15 months in 2021 for contempt of court after refusing to testify in a corruption inquiry related to his presidency. Zuma, South Africa’s president from 2009 to 2018, has faced numerous allegations of corruption, including bribes in a $5 billion arms deal.

South Korea’s former president Park Geun-hye served five years in prison following a 2018 conviction on corruption charges involving coercion and abuse of power. Park was president from 2013 to 2017. The court found she pressured South Korean companies to give millions to foundations run by a friend and sentenced her to 22 years in prison in 2018. She was released early at age 69 because of poor health.

4 updated 1

Argentina’s former president Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner, who led the country from 2007 to 2015, was sentenced to six years in prison and banned from holding public office in 2022, after being convicted in a billion-dollar fraud case.

Italy’s four-time prime minister Silvio Berlusconi was convicted in 2012 for tax fraud. In 2013, Berlusconi was convicted of sex with an underage prostitute in what became known as the “bunga bunga” case. He was cleared on appeal in 2015.

He received a year’s jail sentence for breaching confidentiality after he arranged for a police wiretap of one of his political rivals to be leaked and published in a newspaper.

Ivo Sanader, Croatia’s prime minister from 2003 to 2009, has been in jail since 2011 for corruption. His conviction serves as a landmark case in Eastern Europe’s efforts to combat high-level corruption.

Malaysia’s prime minister from 2009 to 2018, Najib Razak, is serving a 12-year prison sentence for his involvement in the 1MDB scandal. Billions of dollars were embezzled from the state fund, with Najib allegedly pocketing significant sums.

READ ALSO : From Power to Prison: Worldwide Former Leaders Held Accountable for Corruption, Power Abuse

Muhyiddin Yassin, Malaysia’s former prime minister, was charged with abuse of power and money laundering in connection with the awarding of government contracts during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Thailand’s first female prime minister, Yingluck Shinawatra, was sentenced in absentia to five years for negligence over a rice subsidy scheme that caused billions in losses. Yingluck fled the country in August 2017 just as she was due to appear for a verdict. She was sentenced in absentia to five years in jail.

Israel’s longest-serving prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, has faced charges of fraud, bribery, and breach of trust since 2019. The allegations involve media manipulation and illicit gifts.

Despite criminal proceedings, Netanyahu returned to power in November 2022. He previously served as Israel’s prime minister from 1996 to 1999 and again from 2009 to 2021.

Pakistan

Earlier, former Israeli prime minister, Ehud Olmert, served 16 months in prison in 2016 and 2017 for taking cash from an American businessman and bribes in connection with a housing project when he was mayor of Jerusalem, from 1993 to 2003.

Hosni Mubarak, Egypt’s former president who was ousted during the Arab Spring in 2011, was sentenced to three years in prison in 2015 for embezzling state funds.

In 2019, Sudan’s former president Omar Hassan al-Bashir was sentenced to two years in a social reform facility—a treatment reserved for elderly offenders like then-75-year-old Bashir—after being convicted of corruption.

These cases underline the resilience of judicial institutions in democracies, whether established or developing.

Pakistan

icon-facebook icon-twitter icon-whatsapp