RAWALPINDI, Oct 22: Imprisoned leader of Pakistan People’s Party Asif Zardari on Wednesday said he was facing incarceration not because of any crime but due to the fact that he wanted to live a life of dignity and honour.

Appearing in-person before a division bench of the Lahore High Court, Rawalpindi bench, Mr Zardari said since his lawyers had failed to represent him properly he had decided to appear in-person in all his appeals.

Mr Zardari, who was awarded seven years’ imprisonment by a NAB court on charge of getting money from Pakistan Steel Mills chairman, said the lawyers were not ready to argue on the lines he wanted them to.

He claimed that he had been offered deals by generals, and named Khawaja Tariq Rahim as one of the go-between who conveyed the messages of generals to him. “But since I was not prepared to renounce my honour in return for freedom, I spurned these offers.”

Claiming to be the longest jail serving politician in the history of Pakistan, Mr Zardari said he had been in jail for seven years. He also remained in jail for three years after the dismissal of the PPP government in 1990.

He said till his engagement with Benazir Bhutto at the age of 35, he was not named in any case. “I am facing all this because I have a young man in me who says that the emperor is wearing no clothes.”

He said the NAB court which convicted him functioned under the supervision of a uniformed general. He said the judgment was announced at 9:30pm, perhaps the first of its kind to be delivered so late.

He said the prosecution’s case was that when Sajjad Hussain Bukhari was coming to depose against him, he was murdered and “I was named in the FIR.”

He said the NAB court was told time and again that Mr Zardari was one of the accused in the murder case. “I have been exonerated of the charge by the court now,” he informed the division bench comprising Justice Maulvi Anwarul Haq and Justice Tanvir Bashir Ansari.

He said he was fighting for the personal liberties of the citizens of Pakistan and was the follower of Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto and Faiz Ahmad Faiz, adding that he was fighting for every breath of his life and would not surrender before the generals.

He said he was confident that he would get justice and added that Ms Bhutto would come to power again and take this country to greatness.

The case was adjourned to November 10 when he would argue his case point by point. Earlier, the court barred the entry of newsmen, party workers and the lawyers not concerned with the case in the court room. However, later lawyers and journalists were allowed to cover the proceedings.

Local PPP leaders, including Sultan Mehmood Qazi, Nasir Mir, Anjum Farooq Paracha, were also present.