Was heavily drugged for recording 'false' statements, claims Dr Asim

Close aide of Zardari says he was detained in connivance with former PM Nawaz Sharif

Former petroleum minister and senior Pakistan People's Party (PPP) leader Dr Asim Hussain has claimed that he was heavily drugged while in Rangers custody to make false confessions.

Dr Asim, a close aide of PPP Co-Chairperson Asif Ali Zardari and the president of the party's Karachi division, made these claims on a private TV channel's show.

He said so far he did not remember what he was talking about in the recorded statements because he was subjected to severe mental torture and kept in detention for so long.



Dr Asim stoutly rejected charges against him and said he could face them all as the allegations were completely baseless. He further said he was detained in connivance with former prime minister Nawaz Sharif.

The former minister said he was not allowed to go abroad for a surgery despite his assurance to the court that all his properties could be confiscated if he failed to return.

A Rangers spokesperson, however, has refuted Dr Asim's claims. He said that the allegations were false and baseless and neither was the former minister tortured, nor drugged during his detention.

The close aide of Zardari is on out bail these days following a Sindh High Court order in his favour after being imprisoned for 19 months.

The paramilitary Rangers had taken Dr Asim into ‘preventive detention’ on August 27, 2015 for three months over his alleged involvement in corruption and also accusing him of sheltering and treating injured terrorists at the hospitals he owns.