Zardari expresses concern over sentencing of Sindh MPA Ali Nawaz Shah

Former president warns federal govt against policy of ‘political victimisation’

KARACHI: Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) co-chairperson Asif Ali Zardari expressed concern on Friday over sentencing of PPP MPA Syed Ali Nawaz Shah by an accountability court, terming it a misuse of judicial process for 'political victimisation'.

Shah, who is PPP’s MPA from Sindh belongs to Umerkot district and has also served as a federal minister in the cabinet of former prime minister Benazir Bhutto. The MPA has been sentenced for five years in jail in a case registered against him nearly fifteen years ago in 2001.

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“It is strange that according to the case profile, Ali Nawaz Shah has been sentenced to five years in jail for the compensation paid to him by the state for his property in 2001,” the former president said, in a statement.

“If this becomes the norm and judicial processes are misused and manipulated to secure convictions of political opponents things will go too far,” the party's co-chairperson added.

Zardari went on to add that Shah has a good reputation in all political circles and his sentencing has brought to the fore how federal institutions are being manipulated for political victimisation in provinces.

The former president pointed out that the manner in which the date of pronouncing verdict was delayed also raised questions about the fairness of the trial as guaranteed under Article 10-A of the Constitution introduced as a result of the 18th constitutional amendment.

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Further, Zardari warned the federal government against the natural and inevitable consequences of this regressive policy of political witch-hunting and victimisation.

“The federal agencies must not go too far and land themselves in a quagmire from which they may find it difficult to extricate themselves,” he said.

On Thursday, an accountability court in Karachi ordered jail term of five years for the sitting PPP MPA in Sindh, Ali Nawaz Shah. The court also ordered imprisonment for two of Shah’s accomplices, former lawmaker Syed Khadim Ali Shah and bureaucrat Syed Imtiaz Ali Shah for four and three years respectively.

Read: Former minister, two others convicted in land scam

The verdict announced that the aforementioned were found guilty of causing millions of rupees’ loss to the national exchequer by drawing funds in the name of fake and fictitious land acquisition.