By Aamir Latif
KARACHI, Pakistan
A court in Pakistan on Thursday issued an arrest warrant for former Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani over his alleged involvement in a multi-million dollar corruption scandal.
The judge in Karachi also ordered the arrest of Gilani’s fellow Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) leader Makhdoom Amin Fahim, a former trade minister, over the loss of 7 billion Pakistani rupees ($67 million) in public money.
The order for Gilani and Fahim to be arrested by Sept. 10 came a day after another leading PPP figure, Asim Hussain, was arrested on suspicion of accepting commission on petroleum contracts when he was an adviser to the Petroleum Ministry.
The two accused had previously been on bail but the warrant was issued after the Federal Investigation Agency presented the final charges against a dozen PPP leaders.
The charges stem from an export subsidy scheme run by the Trade Development Authority of Pakistan (TDAP) between 2009 and 2012, when Gilani served as prime minister.
According to the charges, Gilani and Fahim - who between then face 12 charges of corruption and misuse of authority - took kickbacks for ordering billions of rupees to be paid out to phony companies.
The government of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has launched a crackdown against corruption, reportedly under pressure from the army, and dozens of politicians and bureaucrats have been arrested.
The PPP, founded in 1967 by Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, is Pakistan's main left-wing party and has been previously accused of wide-scale corruption, most notably allegations against former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto and her husband Asif Ali Zardari.
