June 8, 2003	Sunday	Rabi-us-Sani 7, 1424

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lSLAMABAD, June 7: Pakistan People’s Party chairperson Benazir Bhutto has condemned the victimization of PPP MNA Aijaz Jakhrani.

Mr Jakhrani, elected from Jacobabad constituency, was being victimized from the day he defeated the ruling party’s candidate, Ilahi Bukhsh Soomro, in the Oct 2002 general elections and subsequently refused to vote for Mir Zafarullah Khan Jamali in the trust vote despite inducement and pressure.

The PPP MNA had complained that in another attempt to victimize him, the police arrested on Tuesday his cousin Abdul Wali Jakhrani and five farmers from his village, Dadpur Jagir, in Jacobabad on trumped up murder charges. None of them were nominated in the FIR, which was filed with the police several months ago.

Soon after his arrest Abdul Wali Jakhrani was whisked to an unknown place in Balochistan and the authorities refused to divulge his whereabouts.

In a statement on Thursday, the former prime minister said that silencing dissent through brute force and coercion had never succeeded. She asked the government to desist from political victimization.

Ms Bhutto also urged the human rights organizations to take notice of the incident.