ISLAMABAD: As former president and ailing leader of the opposition Pakistan Peoples Party Asif Ali Zardari on Monday appeared before the heavily guarded accountability court of Islamabad in a National Accountability Bureau (NAB) reference, his counsel informed the judge that police had unnecessarily created hurdles on roads leading to the court.

Responding in a lighter vein, Judge Syed Asghar Ali of the accountability court remarked that he himself had experienced the same.

The defence counsel, Farooq H. Naek, then expressed apprehensions that the crowded courtroom environment amid the coronavirus pandemic could be hazardous for the ailing ex-president of Pakistan. While he was sharing the health concerns, NAB deputy prosecutor general Sardar Muzaffar Abbasi objected, asking the court to proceed in the matter without any delay.

The prosecution and defence counsel also exchanged harsh words, as the judge marked attendance and adjourned further proceedings till Sept 9, when the court is likely to frame charges against the former president and other accused persons.

Bilawal says PPP won’t compromise on NFC, 18th Amendment

According to the Toshakhana reference filed in March this year against leaders of the main opposition parties, the former president and former prime ministers Yousuf Raza Gilani and Nawaz Sharif, Mr Gillani had in order to extend ‘illegal’ benefit to the accused allowed retention of luxury vehicles gifted to them by different foreign states and dignitaries by relaxing procedures relating to submission of gifts to Toshakhana more than a decade ago.

Pakistan Peoples Party chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari, while talking to the media after the ex-president’s appearance before the accountability court, said: “Today all the roads to the NAB court were blocked to stop people from witnessing the injustices meted out to the PPP leadership.”

He said that even the defence counsel, Farooq Naek and Sardar Abdul Latif Khosa, were stopped and mishandled by the police. Besides, he added, several senior lawyers of the Supreme Court were also stopped.

Mr Bhutto-Zardari wondered whether this was a tactic to pressurise judges or the opposition party, PPP, as it seemed the entire Islamabad police force was deputed on roads just because of the appearance of the ex-president before the court.

“Is it an independent state? What did they want to hide from the judges of the Supreme Court and the people of Pakistan?” he asked.

The PPP chairman said every jiyala remembered this day because Aug 17 was the last day of dictator Ziaul Haq. This day should also remind this “hybrid regime”, which was being run through NAB, that their days were numbered, he said, recalling that the PPP had fought against four dictators, Ayub Khan, Yahya Khan, Ziaul Haq and Pervez Musharraf, and is still fighting against the “puppet” regime.

Mr Bhutto-Zardari alleged that the PPP was being pressurised to compromise on the 18th Amendment and the National Finance Commission (NFC), but the party would not change its stance on such vital issues. “If you want to arrest my entire family, then do it. But we will not compromise on the economic rights of the people and the Constitution of Pakistan,” he declared.

The PPP chairman said it was ironic that one judge of NAB court allowed the ex-president to appear via video link amid the Covid-19 pandemic, whereas the judge of another NAB court ordered him to appear in person. He made it clear that the PPP had always respected courts. “The PPP still expects justice from the courts in Shaheed Zulfikar Ali Bhutto’s case.”

Mr Bhutto-Zardari said notorious terrorist Ehsanullah Ehsan, the same person who boasted martyring the children of Army Public School (APS) in Peshawar, had escaped from detention, but no court in the country took suo motu notice. He regretted that justice could not be done in the APS children case.

Published in Dawn, August 18th, 2020