ISLAMABAD: Chairman of the Senate Standing Committee on Interior Rehman Malik on Saturday sought a report on misconduct with Aseefa Bhutto-Zardari and manhandling of elected public representatives by security personnel and other staff and stopping her from meeting her ailing father — former president Asif Ali Zardari — at the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (PIMS), Islamabad, though she had permission from the court.

Mr Malik has asked the interior secretary to submit a report on the incident in a week at the next meeting of the committee and directed the chief commissioner and the inspector general of Islamabad police, IG (prisons) of Punjab and executive director of PIMS to probe the incident and identify those involved in the incident.

Incident smacks of political vendetta, dictatorial tendencies, says PPP

The notice says that the committee chairman is of the view that according to the jail manual, the room in a hospital where an under-trial prison is kept during his judicial remand becomes a sub-jail and the family members cannot be stopped from meeting the accused after issuance of permission from the court. He said that it was against the jail manual to stop the family members to see the accused despite having permission from the court.

Senator Malik said that it was an inhumane act to stop a daughter from meeting her ailing father despite having court orders. He said that the government was indulging in vendetta against former president Zardari which is evident from the harsh attitude to his daughter, who was physically restrained from visiting her father in the hospital despite having a court order in her hand.

He also observed that violation of court orders came in the purview of contempt of court.

Meanwhile PPP parliamentary leader in the Senate Sherry Rehman has demanded immediate shifting of Mr Zardari to hospital from jail. She regretted that Mr Zardari had clandestinely been moved to jail on a wheelchair.

She said that heart arteries of the former president were blocked and deplored that his recent medical reports had not been given to his family yet.

She said the National Accountability Bureau itself had described Mr Zardari’s health as critical.

Ms Rehman said that the former president was being denied basic facilities just to torment him. However, she added, the government’s attitude to Mr Zardari and the PPP could not defeat the party’s morale.

PPP secretary general Syed Nayyar Hussain Bukhari has said that the country is suffering from the worst form of dictatorship as the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf government is blatantly victimising its political opponents.

He said in a statement that the mistreatment with Aseefa Bhutto-Zardari was proof of moral corruption of the government.

As per which law a daughter was not allowed to meet her father despite having a court order, he asked and said that this act was a violation of human rights. “Such acts are always a weapon of dictatorial regimes,” Mr Bukhari said.

He concluded by saying that the “selected” government was victimising its political opponents and that this attitude of theirs sprang from a dictatorial mindset.

Meanwhile, Asif Zardari’s sister Faryal Talpur met with her family members and lawyers.

After the meeting, Advocate Zia-ul-Hussain Lanjar said that Ms Talpur had not been provided B-class in jail as per the court order and also had been denied healthcare facilities. Due to a recent heatwave in Rawalpindi, he said, Ms Faryal was suffering from skin allergy and had developed a cataract in her eye along with prior heart problems.

Published in Dawn, September 1st, 2019