Firm stance: Nawaz Shah’s imprisonment is political victimisation, says Zardari

Says federal institutions are being used to achieve political aims

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari on Friday expressed serious concern over the sentencing of his party’s MPA Syed Ali Nawaz Shah by an accountability court in Karachi and termed it  a misuse of judicial process for political victimisation.

Belonging to Umerkot in Sindh, Ali Nawaz, member of the Sindh Assembly, was also a federal minister during the Benazir Bhutto government.

The PPP said that the case in which he was sentenced to five years was registered against him in 2001.

In a statement, Zardari, a former president, said that it is strange that according to the case profile Ali Nawaz is sentenced for the compensation paid to him by the state for his property in 2001.

“If this becomes the norm and judicial processes are thus misused and manipulated to secure convictions of political opponents then things will go too far,” he added.

Shah, Zardari said, enjoyed very good reputation across the board in political circles and his sentencing has brought to the fore yet again how federal institutions are being manipulated for political victimisation in the provinces.

The former president warned against the natural and inevitable consequences of the regressive policy of political witch-hunting and victimization, adding that the federal agencies must not go too far and land themselves in a quagmire from which they may find it difficult to extricate themselves.

Nandipur Power Project

Meanwhile, members of the PPP submitted an adjournment motion in the National Assembly Secretariat to discuss alleged gross irregularities in Nandi Pur Power Project.

In their motion PPP MNAs Shazia Mari, Dr Nafisa Shah, Imran Laghari, Aijaz Jakhrani and Abdul Sattar Bachani said that despite spending billions of rupees on the project the government has so far failed to attain anything substantial from it as the plant with capacity of producing 425MW electricity is generating nil at present.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 12^th,  2015.