3 April, 2005	Sunday	23 Safar 1426

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ISLAMABAD, April 2: The jailed president of the Alliance for the Restoration of Democracy (ARD) and acting president of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), Makhdoom Javed Hashmi, was shifted to the Kot Lakhpat Jail Lahore from Rawalpindi’s Adiyala Jail on Saturday. Mr Hashmi has been undergoing a 23-year jail term after he was convicted last year on the charge of treason. Since his arrest on Oct 29, 2003, at the Parliament Lodges, Mr Hashmi has been kept in Adiyala Jail.

Talking to Dawn, Maimoona Hashmi, MNA and daughter of Mr Hashmi, said he had been brought to Lahore on Saturday morning in connection with the assets case being heard by a National Accountability Court. She said it had happened many times in the past that her father had been brought to Lahore in the morning and taken back to Rawalpindi in the evening after appearing in the NAB court.

She said her father was to be brought back to Rawalpindi by a PIA flight at 3pm. However, she added, after the court hearing the officials of the Punjab police and intelligence agencies put him into a vehicle and took him to the Kot Lakhpat Jail.

Later, she said, the Adiyala Jail superintendent called the family and asked them to take away the belongings of Mr Hashmi.

The PML-N MNA protested over the government’s attitude and described the ‘forceful shifting’ of her father to Lahore as another example of ‘political victimization.’ She also termed the decision a violation of human rights as, she said, her father was not allowed to take with him clothes, medicines and his other necessary items.

Meanwhile, an official source said the NAB court had fixed April 16 as the next date of hearing in the assets case. The source said that as PPP leader Asif Ali Zardari was scheduled to arrive in Lahore on April 16, it was difficult for the administration to handle two leaders at the Lahore Airport at the same time.