ISLAMABAD — The leading candidate to become Pakistan’s next prime minister was effectively blocked from the post when a narcotics court investigating a drug scandal ordered his arrest Thursday.
Makhdoom Shahabuddin, 65, was President Asif Ali Zardari’s choice to be nominated to replace Yousuf Raza Gilani, the outgoing prime minister. Gilani was ousted from office this week by the Supreme Court as a result of his contempt conviction in April for ignoring the court’s order to revive an old corruption case against Zardari.
Shahabuddin, the country’s outgoing textiles minister, had submitted his nominating papers Thursday. Hours later, a magistrate in Rawalpindi issued an arrest warrant for Shahabuddin at the request of the country’s Anti-Narcotics Force, which is run by a Pakistani general.
The court’s move raised suspicions that the country’s judiciary, which has an acrimonious relationship with Zardari, was again imposing its will on his government.
Gilani’s removal from office was seen by many as the culmination of a political vendetta waged by the Supreme Court and its chief justice, Itftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, against Zardari and his ruling party, the Pakistan People’s Party, or PPP.
Zardari’s party scrambled to find alternate candidates. Parliament is expected to elect a prime minister today. Zardari’s party, together with a coalition of allied parties, has the votes needed in parliament to ensure the appointment of a PPP premier.
The arrest warrant against Shahabuddin centers on allegations that, while he was health minister in 2010, he was involved in ensuring the delivery of illegally imported amounts of ephedrine to two Pakistani pharmaceutical companies.
Ephedrine can be used in the manufacture of methamphetamine. The same warrant also sought the arrest of Gilani’s son, lawmaker Ali Musa Gilani, who investigators with the Anti-Narcotics Force say is also linked to the ephedrine scandal. Both men have denied the charges.
