KARACHI, May 7: The Pakistan People’s Party on Monday strongly condemned political victimisation of the party’s MPA Humaira Alwani, who has been booked in a false case two years ago without grant of bail.

Alwani was accused of ‘sabotaging law and order’ by participating in a labour procession. She was being harassed over the case for the last two years and has been declared ‘proclaimed offender’ and receiving offensive threats over the phone for raising issues pertaining to Thatta district in the assembly.

PPP’s central information secretary Sherry Rehman said Alwani had recently submitted a questionnaire and a resolution related to the bifurcation plan of the Thatta district being opposed by the people of the district.

The PPP leader said soon after that Alwani started receiving threats and was being pressurized to take back the resolution. She termed the action against Awami the worst type of political vendetta in the history of the country.

Ms Rehman noted that the present regime had a systematic way of putting hurdles in the way of opposition parliamentarians, especially women though the Musharraf regime claims to be the biggest proponent of women’s rights and democracy.

RAPE CASE: The PPP also strongly denounced the gruesome murder of a teenage girl who was raped and set on fire in Gujranwala.

The murder was allegedly aided by the powerful Union Council chairman of the area. According to PPP’s information secretary, six goons reportedly kidnapped a 16-year-old daughter of Mohammad Yunis and gang-raped her. They allegedly hid the body of the victim in a pile of chaff with the help of their relatives, the UC chairman and Numberdar of the area.

Fearing a police raid, they later burnt her alive. The ordeal of victim’s family continued as the police refused to lodge an FIR and instead implicated her father and brother-in-law in the case. The family was later expelled from the village on the orders of the influential people of the area.

“This is a gruesome murder and shocking incident and perpetrators of the crime deserve exemplary punishment”, said Ms Rehman.

MURDER SLATED: The PPP leader and deputy leader of the Opposition in Senate, Mian Raza Rabbani, PPP Sindh president Syed Qaim Ali Shah, Party’s Karachi division president Rashid Rabbani, provincial deputy information secretary Waqar Mehdi and labour leader Habib Junaidi condemned the murder of senior vice-president of the party in the NWFP Qamar Abbas and his nephew and termed it target killing.