18 February 2004	Wednesday	26 Zilhaj 1424

ISLAMABAD, Feb 17: Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz) Member of the National Assembly Maimoona Hashmi on Tuesday accused National Assembly Speaker Chaudhry Amir Hussain of tampering with the record of the National Assembly Secretariat.

Talking to newsmen on Tuesday she alleged that the NA Secretariat staff had issued back-dated entry passes to the petitioner and witnesses to prove their presence in the press conference in which her father, Makhdoom Javed Hashmi, had read out a letter, allegedly written by someone from the army.

Moreover, she said, an employee of the secretariat, G.M. Shah, had become a prosecution witness in the case. She said the prosecution had produced blank letter heads and a rubber stamp before the court claiming that these items had been recovered from a drawer at the residence of Mr Hashmi.

She said she feared that her father would be convicted in the treason case and sentenced to 25 years' rigorous imprisonment. When asked to be more specific about her fears she said the source which had told her father about the government's plan to arrest him, had informed her about the government plan.

Ms Hashmi said the morale of her father was very high despite all these actions of the government. She said her father had decided to continue boycott of the jail trial. He has already challenged the jail trial in the Lahore High Court and has sought an open trial.