Liaqat Ali to Imran: Assassination Attempts Not New To Pakistan

Former international cricketer turned Pak Prime Minister Imran Khan luckily escaped an assassination attempt on November 3. He had always feared that after getting out of power, his life was in danger. Political leaders in Pakistan have never felt safe in this Islamic terrorist dominated violent country. Several of its former leaders have met an untimely death by getting shot, bombed or hanged. This continues since the formation of Pakistan in 1947. The first assassination took place only four years after its formation.

Liaqat Ali Khan, the first Prime Minister of Pakistan was assassinated during a public meeting of Muslim League in Rawalpindi on October 16, 1951.

Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto, who is considered to be the first democratically elected PM of Pakistan was hanged to death. General Zia-ul Haq, who was the President of Pakistan and chief of Pak Army from 1978 to 1988 took away power from Zulfiqar Bhutto in a military coup in 1977. He had preferred to get Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto hanged in 1979 and several legal experts term it ‘judicial murder’.

General Zia-ul Haq also had a violent death. On August 17, 1988, he died in a plane crash, which is alleged to be a planned murder.

Another Pakistani PM Benazir Bhutto was also assassinated on December 7, 2007. She was killed at the very spot where Liaqat Khan had been murdered. Benazir was the daughter of Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto. Earlier she had escaped two assassination attempts.

General Pervez Musharraf, who ruled Pakistan from 2001 to 2008 has been sentenced to death in absentia. He had also survived several assassination attempts.

Sensing danger to their lives in their home country, leaders like General Musharraf and former Pak PM Nawaz Sharif have preferred to stay away from Pakistan after getting out of power.