Husband of Ex-PM Asif Zardari completes 8 years in jail
Pakistan Times National News Desk

ISLAMABAD: Asif Ali Zardari husband of Benazir Bhutto and a former federal minister Friday, was paid rich tributes on the completion of eight years in jail. He was arrested on 5 November 1996 when Farooq Ahmed Khan Leghari the then president of Pakistan dissolved the assemblies and deposed the Benazir Bhutto government. Since that time many governments changed but he is still in jail facing one case or the other.

Speakers while speaking at a seminar demanded his unconditional release and called him a victim of vested interests and a hero in the struggle for the restoration of ‘true democracy’ in the country. Makhdoom Amin Fahim president of Parliamentarians’ Peoples Party presided over the seminar while among the noted speakers included Jahangir Badar Secretary General PPP, Raja Pervaiz Ashraf Secretary General Parliamentarians’ PPP, Advocate Babar Awan, Ghulam Abbas, Mushtaq Awan and Ishaq Zafar.

Makhdoom Amin Fahim said Peoples Party believed in dialogue but in any deal. He dispelled the impression that some underhand deal was in progress between Asif Ali Zardari and the authorities for his release. Since he is He said in most of the cases Asif Ali Zardari has been acquitted and in the rest too, he would be released ‘honourably’. He condemned framing of what he said fake charges against Mr Zardari. Out of a total number of 22 cases 14 cases have been set aside. This speaks volumes about the so-called ‘transparency and rule of law’ the present regime insists it believes in, he said.

Jahangir Badar said Pakistan Peoples Party was the party that believed in national integrity and unity. It is as popular in the masses, today, as it has been in the days of Z A Bhutto, he said. He believed the PPP government would come back under the leadership of Benazir Bhutto. He criticized what he said authorities’ indifference and disregard to all laws of land and morality in keeping Mr Zardari behind the bars for over a period of eight years.

Raja Pervez Ashraf said that Asif Ali Zardari was a ray of hope in what he said, ‘the dark days of political bankruptcy’. He eulogized Asif Zardari’s uncompromising and principled standpoint. The present government is left with no other option than to set him Scot-free and with every passing day they are under enormous pressure to relieve Mr Zardari or face charges of political vendetta, he added.

Advocate Babar Awan gave a bird’s eye-view of cases against Zardari. He said most of them are concocted, fake and based on politically motivated intentions. He has been even charged with two suicide cases, five murder cases, eight accountability cases, one drug case and five tax evasion cases. Out of these, eight has been set aside and he has been granted bail in a few cases.●