November 20, 2003	Thursday	Ramazan 24, 1424

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ISLAMABAD, Nov 19: Vice-Chairman Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) Makhdoom Amin Fahim has said National Accountability Bureau has once again tried to mislead the public about Asif Ali Zardari‘s continued detention, which entered the 8th year early this month.

In response to a press statement issued by the NAB that Mr Zardari was not being kept behind bars beyond his period of conviction, Mr Fahim in a statement said the contention of NAB that the seven-year sentence of Mr Zardari in the Steel Mills case began from September 12, 2002, when the accountability court gave the verdict, was patently wrong.

He said Mr Zardari was taken into custody on November 4, 1996, and the Ehtesab Ordinance was promulgated in December that year. The NAB has mentioned the date of sentencing of Mr Zardari as September 12 last year. It, however, has chosen not to remember that this case was instituted soon after Mr Zardari‘s arrest and that it actually came up before two judges of the Ehtesab bench of the Lahore High Court in April 1997, the statement added.

“Seeking to hide from the people such facts only speak of the character of the people who have held Mr Zardari hostage for their political ambitions.”

It said under the law, Mr Zardari was entitled to statutory bail after two years of detention but it was denied to him. Under the prison rules, the total period of detention of Mr Zardari counted from November 4, 1996, amounted to 28 years.

“A convict sentenced to serve life term spends no more than six years and 90 days in jail after taking into account the days and nights as well as the remissions under the same rules. By this reckoning, Mr Zardari has spent over four life terms in jails.

“Mr Zardari’s captors say while awarding the sentence the judge did not extend the benefits of counting the previous period of detention towards conviction, which is consistent with law.