Arrest order outstanding for new Pakistani Prime Minister

The government of Pakistan and its Supreme Court just do not get along. The other day the Supreme Court was finally able to remove Prime Minister Yousef Gilani from office for his failure to implement a Supreme Court ruling.




In repsonse to this action, the Pakistani government appointed a new prime minister the former Health and Finance Minister Makhdoom Shahabuddin. However, this appointment is itself problematic.




The ANF Pakistan's anti-drug task force announced that the Supreme Court had approved the arrest of Shahabuddin some while ago earlier this month. Somehow the order to arrest did not get carried out.




. The former health minister is part of a scandal involving the projected export of ephedrine to Iraq. The export orders were fake. Somehow the ephedrine ended up being used for production of illegal drugs in Pakistan. A number of officials have already been arrested but Shahabuddin was the big fish. Perhaps the new prime minister will immediately go on an extended world tour. For more see this article.



UPDATE: The article I used was from antiwar.com. Other sources list a different prime minister. For example here.

""Raja Pervaiz Ashraf, a longtime ally of President Asif Ali Zardari, who faces corruption allegations, was chosen by parliament Friday as Pakistan's prime minister, taking over a government locked in a bitter war with a hostile judiciary and struggling with a tide of daunting economic and security challenges.""

Whichever story is correct both face corruption allegations! I found the Ashraf name at several sources so probably the antiwar.com article made a mistake although no doubt the person discussed faces arrest.