Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif might have narrowly escaped the jinx attached with April, a month in which Pakistani Premiers have previously been overthrown, sentenced to life or hanged.
Mr. Sharif (67) on Thursday narrowly survived being disqualified after a 3-2 split decision by a Supreme Court bench, which ordered the setting up of a joint investigation team to probe the allegations of money laundering against his family.
Interestingly, the apex court verdict comes in the same month when Mr. Sharif was sentenced to life imprisonment in 2000 and his government was sacked in 1993.
His unsavoury April trysts
In 1993, Mr. Sharif’s government was sacked by then President Ghulam Ishaq Khan for corruption.
On April 6, 2000, he was sentenced for life by a court in the infamous ‘plane hijacking case’ based on allegations that Mr. Sharif as Prime Minister had disallowed the landing of a plane carrying then army chief Gen Pervez Musharraf, who had toppled Mr. Sharif’s government in 1999 in a bloodless coup.
However, other Pakistani Prime Ministers too have suffered a bad fate in April.
April 4, 1979 — Bhutto's hanging
The worst April in the history of the country was April 4, 1979, when former Prime Minister Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto was hanged for criminal conspiracy to kill a leading politician.
The hanging followed a dubious court proceeding allegedly orchestrated at the behest of military dictator Zia-ul-Haq, who had overthrown the Bhutto government in 1978.
Years later, on April 26, 2012, then Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani was convicted for disobeying an order by a court to write letter to the Swiss government to reopen a corruption case against Asif Ali Zardari. Mr. Gilani stepped down on the same day.
