HYDERABAD, April 17: The leaders of the Larkana chapter of the Pakistan Muslim League-Q on Thursday termed the arrest of their leader, former Sindh minister Altaf Hussain Unnar, a miscarriage of justice and said the manner in which the case had been registered against him and the modus operandi of his arrest had exposed the exponents of democracy.

PML-Q central committee member Babu Sarwar Siyal, Larkana PML-Q vice-president Gulab Khan Kolachi and others said at a news conference here that the statement of Sindh home minister Zulfiqar Ali Mirza whom they called the provincial SHO that Unnar had been arrested in many cases and would have to face them, indicated that many more false cases would be registered against him.

It appeared the home minister had been tasked to eliminate the rulers’ opponents, they alleged. Two cases about the same offence had been registered at Budhapur police station, Jamshoro. One had been registered on Feb 10, 2007 against unidentified people while the other had been filed on April 15, 2008 which nominated Altaf Unnar and others, they said.

They said that Unnar’s only crime was that he had announced contesting by-elections for NA-207 Qambar-Shahdadkot, which formed the constituency of Shaheed Benazir Bhutto.

They expressed fear for Unnar’s life and warned that if any harm came to him Asif Ali Zardari and Zulfiqar Mirza would be held responsible. Unnar’s elder brother, Haji Ghulam Hussain Unnar, too, had suffered incarceration in 1996 for 23 months and faced 69 politically-motivated cases, they said.

The contradictory statements issued by ministers on Unnar’s arrest clearly demonstrated that they were themselves confused, they said. Federal Minister for Information and Broadcasting Ms Sherry Rehman said that Unnar was arrested in Muneer Sangi’s murder case while Zulfiqar Mirza said that Unnar faced not one but many cases, they said.

They said that the rulers were repeating the history. A renowned politician who had twice remained provincial minister and was diabetic and heart and kidney patient was being denied access to medicines and home-cooked food, they said.

The government neither allowed his family members nor friends to meet him, which clearly indicated that the government wanted to eliminate him, they claimed.

They appealed to the president of Pakistan, chief justice, human rights organisations, journalists and intellectuals to help save Unnar’s life and made it clear that they would never leave the field open for others in by-elections. If Unnar was not released he would contest elections from jail and thousands of his companions would take part in his campaign, they said.