Pakistan

ATC sends Dr Asim to jail

PPP leader has been charged for harbouring militants in Karachi's Ziauddin hospital

Zubair Ashraf December 22, 2015

ATC orders NAB to produce the accused in an accountability court on Wednesday as per the requirement of law. PHOTO: AFP

KARACHI: An anti-terrorism court in Karachi on Tuesday sent Pakistan Peoples Party leader and close aide of former president Asif Ali Zardari, Dr Asim Hussain, to jail over charges of harbouring militants in Karachi's Ziauddin hospital.

The court directed the National Accountability Bureau to produce the close confidante of former president Asif Ali Zardari in an accountability court on Wednesday.

Further, adjourning the case till December 30, the ATC also ordered that copies of all prosecution documents, including statements of witnesses, be handed over.

Dr Asim handed into police custody as ATC rejects investigation report

On Monday, the court rejected the police investigation report clearing the former minister of terrorism charges and ordered his re-arrest for a trial in an anti-terrorism court (ATC).

Sindh High Court’s Justice Naimatullah Phulpoto, who oversees the ATCs, discarded the report observing there was sufficient evidence against Dr Asim. He then ordered the suspect to be presented before the ATC-II for initiating the trial today.

Sindh ‘saddened’ by court order

Dr Asim, chairman of the Sindh Higher Education Commission and a friend of former president Asif Ali Zardari, is facing charges of abetting and harbouring terrorists at his family-owned hospitals in Karachi.

After spending 90 days in the custody of paramilitary Rangers, who detained him on August 26, he was handed over to the Karachi police for further interrogation. The police, however, relieved him of the charges and got him released, sparking a tussle between the federal and provincial governments.

COMMENTS (11)

np | 8 years ago | Reply @Usman: "independence that the judiciary has been given, unprecedented in Asia." This maybe unprecented in Pakistan. It does not make it unprecedented in Asia. In 1975 Allahabad high court passed judgment against the then PM Indira Gandhi. In more recent times, Laloo Prasad Yadav has been debarred from contesting elections due to his corruption in fodder scandal being proved in a court of law. A minister in Gujarat state was among those convicted for the Gujarat riots of 2002. As such India has a long tradition of independent judiciary.

Jibran | 8 years ago | Reply Where are the cases of corruption against the Punjabi generals stand these days? All the pomp and show through the likes of Rauf klasra was for no reason? No progress?

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Jibran | 8 years ago | Reply Very dangerous precedence. Civil liberties are being trampled on. Right wing apologists of the military mullah alliance are celebrating. Punjabis are jubilant. History repeating itself and these changes are always for the worse.

ibs | 8 years ago | Reply Its happening. With Asim Hussain a lot of heads will roll..

MukMuka | 8 years ago | Reply Ziauddin Hopital should be converted to butchery/slaughter house for livestock, and livestock treatment facility, for milking, and livestocks. This should be done under the same name for the honor of the Memorial to be remembered.

Dash | 8 years ago | Reply Why only Sindh & PPP? When will accountability start in Punjab???

Usman | 8 years ago | Reply Pakistan's judges should realise they stand on the cusp of making history, everyone from the ATC, lower courts to the SC. They must rule with integrity and independence that the judiciary has been given, unprecedented in Asia. They must not start backing feudal, terror or business lobbies.

bash gul | 8 years ago | Reply As the saying goes EVERY DOG HAS HIS DAY. Watch out corrupt politicians. If Dr Asim would have been released by the police, then the people would have lost their trust in the judiciary.

ishrat salim | 8 years ago | Reply I say & will keep on saying, Allahs justice shall prevail here in this world & herein after. Each & everyone including PPPs supporters will face justice in sha Allah.

Shahid | 8 years ago | Reply Yes! Time for crooks to go behind the bars. PPP's leaders should be investigated too for knowingly supporting this person.

Sodomite | 8 years ago | Reply Time for AZ and his Boys to face justice. Time that a Judiciary starts ruling like that of nuclear power.

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