Daily Times

Former president Asif Ali Zardari on Saturday filed an appeal in the Supreme Court, requesting that the hearing of a review petition he had filed against a Jan 7 verdict be fixed for Feb 12.

In the petition filed today, the PPP co-chairperson urged the court to fix the hearing of his petition on Feb 12. The petition, filed by Advocate Sardar Muhammad Latif Khan Khosa on behalf of the former president, says that Zardari is innocent until proven guilty, yet has been being deprived of his fundamental rights. “The liberty and free movement of the applicant has been set at peril by NAB (National Accountability Bureau) authorities,” the petition reads. “The petitioner, despite being innocent in the [fake bank accounts case], is facing the agony and deprivation from the fundamental rights, causing an irreparable loss to him.” Yesterday, the Sindh government, Sindh Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah and PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari had filed separate petitions in the Supreme Court, challenging the verdict passed on Jan 7. Shah and Bilawal had challenged being named in the JIT report and being classified among 172 people whose names were placed on the federal no-fly list as a consequence of being involved in the investigation.

Meanwhile Former president and Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) Co-Chairman Asif Ali Zardari said on Saturday that no one can prevent us from attaining our rights. Addressing a rally in Tando Adam, he declared the ruling party as “cowards”. “Shifting civil aviation offices to Islamabad is a way to earn commission by the government,” he alleged. PPP’s Asif Ali Zaradri was all praises for Sindh Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah. However, he also taunted him by calling him a “miser from heart”. Earlier, Asif Ali Zardari escaped a potential accident after his helicopter narrowly missed a flying red carpet, which was laid out to welcome him in Sindh’s Tando Adam town.

In a clear show of mismanagement, the carpet was laid out without anything to weight it down and to keep it safe from gusts of wind generated by the chopper’s blades during landing.

Published in Daily Times, February 10^th 2019.