Taliban threat: SHC allows Zardari private security

Former president sought permission to use bullet-proof vehicles and private security guards.

KARACHI:

The Sindh High Court (SHC) permitted former president Asif Ali Zardari to use bullet-proof vehicles with tinted glasses and keep private security on his own expense in view of looming threats by the Taliban.

The former head of the state has however been instructed to inform the interior ministry about the number of vehicles, including guards and their weapons.

The co-chairman of Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) had approached Sindh High Court to seek permission to use bullet-proof vehicles and keep private security guards with licenced arms due to prevailing threats to his life and his children at the hands of Taliban militants and undemocratic forces.



Zardari had filed the petition through his attorney Abu Bakar Zardari, citing the federal interior ministry, home secretary and director general of Rangers Sindh as respondents.

His lawyers, Farooq H Naek and Shazia Hanjrah, informed the court that the petitioner served as the eleventh president of the country and had successfully concluded the five year tenure of his office for the first time in Pakistan’s history.

During his tenure as president, Zardari being the commander-in-chief had presided over the successful military operation against the Taliban that even the military dictator before him failed to achieve, the attorney added.

The lawyers said Asif Zardari had left the presidency upon completion of his tenure on September 8. Now, he has to travel throughout the country to attend party’s affairs and address the public. There is great apprehension about his security as well as his family, the lawyers said, citing that the petitioner’s wife Benazir Bhutto, was assassinated in Rawalpindi on December 27, 2007, at a public gathering.

It is a fact that top political leadership of PPP have and continue to receive threats to their lives from terrorists, they said.

They added that the former president is also receiving threats to his life and this fact has also been established in the reports issued by the security agencies. After the assassination of Benazir Bhutto, the petitioner is also under continuous threats from undemocratic forces in the country, the lawyers said.

Under the prevailing law and order situation in the country, there are instances of killings and attempts on lives of different political leaders in which many of them have lost their lives, the lawyers cited.

The petitioner however said that the former president does not want security on the state’s expense.

Thus, they pleaded to the court to direct all law enforcement agencies working under the federal government and provinces to provide 24 hour special security cover to the petitioner and his family.

It was also requested that the petitioner and family may be allowed to use bullet-proof vehicles with tinted glasses and guards with armed licences to travel throughout the country.

Deputy attorney general Ashiq Raza said the request made by the petitioner seems to be justified since he is requesting for permission to make security arrangements on his own expense, while he seems to be entitled for this being the former president.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 4^th, 2013.