Govt using courts for political victimisation: Zardari

ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) Co-chairman and former president, Asif Zardari, has expressed grave concern over the sentencing of Sindh MPA Syed Ali Nawaz Shah by an accountability court in Karachi, terming it as misuse of judicial processes by the government for political victimisation.
Zardari said it was strange that according to the case profile, Ali Nawaz was sentenced to five years in jail for the compensation paid to him by the state for his property in 2001.
Belonging to Umerkot, Ali Nawaz was also a federal minister during the government of Shaheed Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto. The case in which he was sentenced to five years was registered against him nearly 15 years ago in 2001.
The reference said Ali Nawaz and others sold some land to the government at inflated prices and later claimed the land as their own.
Zardari warned that if this becomes the norm and judicial processes are thus misused and manipulated to secure convictions of political opponents, things will go too far.
The former president said Ali Nawaz enjoyed a good reputation in political circles across the board and his sentencing had brought to the fore yet again how the federal institutions were being manipulated for political victimisation in the provinces. He said the manner in which the date of pronouncing verdict was delayed also raised pertinent questions about the fairness of the trial as guaranteed under Article 10-A of the Constitution introduced as a result of the 18th Amendment.
Zardari warned of dangerous consequences of this regressive policy of political witch-hunting and victimisation. “The federal agencies must not go too far and land themselves in a quagmire from which they may find it difficult to extricate themselves,” he said.
Meanwhile, the PPP leadership including Chief Minister Sindh Qaim Ali Shah and NA Opposition Leader Khursheed Shah met with the MPA in prison. The PPP leadership and Ali Nawaz discussed options pertaining to filing an appeal against the accountability court’s sentence.
Meanwhile, the PPP has decided to raise the issue of Nandipur Power Project in the National Assembly by submitting an adjournment motion to discuss the irregularities in the project.
The adjournment motion was submitted in the National Assembly Secretariat under Rule 110 of the Rules of Procedure and Conduct of Business in the National Assembly, 2007 and signed by Shazia Marri, Dr Nafisa Shah, Imran Leghari, Aijaz Jakhrani and Abdul Sattar Bachani.
Though the motion, the PPP legislators stated that despite spending billions of rupees on the project, the government has so far failed to attain anything substantial from it as a plant with the capacity to produce 425MWs electricity was generating nothing at present.