Pakistan PM candidate faces arrest in drugs investigation

A judge of the Pakistan Supreme Court has ordered the arrest of Makhdoom Shahabuddin in a drugs investigation only hours after his nomination as the prime ministerial candidate, triggering reports he may be pulled out of the race.

Raja Parvez Ashraf and Qamar Zaman Kaira, both former ministers in the cabinet of ousted prime minister Yousuf Raza Gilani are the party's other candidates, according to Karamat Hussain Niazi, general secretary of the National Assembly who spoke to reporters in Islamabad.

President Asif Ali Zardari's Pakistan Peoples Party would settle on one candidate tonight, GEO Television reported, adding Shahabuddin would be withdrawn after the warrant was issued.

Shahabuddin's arrest was ordered today by a judge of the anti-narcotics court, in a case allegedly involving the illicit trade of ephedrine, according to Waseem Qureshi, a special public prosecutor who spoke over phone from Rawalpindi to Bloomberg.

Authorities are investigating whether Shahabuddin authorised an illegal permit to two pharmaceutical companies to import ephedrine during his term as health minister in 2011. The case also involves the former premier's son Ali Musa Gilani. The case is being supervised by senior judges headed by chief justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry.

The new Pakistan PM to be selected in a parliamentary vote tomorrow, would have to pursue corruption charges against Zardari, failing which be could face the prospect of being removed like Gilani. Gilani became Pakistan's first premier to be removed by a court ruling for failing to open graft cases against the president, this week.