ISLAMABAD, June 23: The government on Wednesday served a notice, issued by Swiss Magistrate Christine Junod, on Pakistan People's Party leader Asif Ali Zardari to appear before her in Geneva on June 30 for hearing in the SGS case.
According to APP, Information Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed said the government had conveyed its readiness to Mr Zardari to facilitate his presence in the hearing. The government, he added, was ready to take him to the Swiss court and bring him back home.
However, PPP spokesman Senator Farhatullah Khan Babar told Dawn that Mr Zardari had again declined to travel to Switzerland due to his poor health. The notice, issued by the Swiss investigating magistrate on May 17, was served by the Deputy Commissioner, Islamabad, Mr Tariq Mehmood, in a meeting with Mr Zardari at the Pakistan Institute Medical Sciences (Pims) on Wednesday evening.
According the sources, Mr Zardari's lawyer Senator Farooq H. Naek was present when the deputy commissioner gave a copy of the notice to the jailed PPP leader. Mr Babar said Mr Zardari had informed the Swiss magistrate in writing that he wanted to get his name cleared in the case but could not travel long distance because of poor health.
Mr Zardari said that he had been denied medical treatment as advised by a high-powered medical board constituted by the government under the orders of a court in Karachi.
Mr Zardari stated that the medical board had advised him "hydrotherapy" treatment for eight weeks which was available only in the Dr Ziauddin Hospital in Karachi. After eight weeks of the treatment the same medical board would re-assess his condition, he added.
However, the PPP leader said, he had been brought to Islamabad from Karachi to deny him the treatment and this had caused him 'irreparable damage.' Mr Zardari said that his petition seeking a court directive to the government to take him back to Karachi for the treatment was still pending before the Sindh High Court.
The PPP leader said that he would also have to appear before a sessions judge in Lahore on June 30 in which his appearance was necessary. He said the court had ordered re-hearing of his appeal filed in September 2002 in the Steel Mills case after reserving judgment for three months.
Mr Zardari said his bail petition in the BMW case filed in November 2003 in the Supreme Court was being adjourned for one reason or another. He said he had been given bail in all cases except the two cases.
