KARACHI, May 22: The additional district and sessions court of South, trying Asif Ali Zardari in a murder case, issued fresh show-cause notice to the prison chief of the Punjab for not turning up to explain why the interned politician was not being produced despite repeated court notices.

On May 10, the court had issued notices to the prison chiefs of the Punjab and Sindh to appear personally before the court on Thursday for “intentionally” failing to produce Mr Zardari, who has been in detention for over six-and-a-half years.

Issuing show-cause notices to the IGPs of the two provinces, Judge Farooq Ali Channa, had also ordered them to “appear in person alongwith report on May 22 at 8:30am and to show cause as to why action under section 175 or the Pakistan Penal Code should not be taken” against them.

Judge Channa, who was transferred early this week, had also ordered the jail chiefs of the two provinces to ensure the production of the interned husband of former prime minister Benazir Bhutto in the murder case of Sajjad Hussain, a former chief of the Pakistan Steel.

Since a judge is yet to be appointed for the court, the matter was taken up by the link judge, Abrar Ahmed Memon, who, vacated the show-cause notice to the Sindh jail chief after a written reply was submitted to him.

The jail chief of the Punjab, however, did not respond to the notice to him and forwarded the copy of his letter to the home secretary of the Punjab in reply to court’s order for the production of Mr Zardari, who has been lodged in the PIMS, under the custody of the Attock Jail.

In his letter to home secretary, the IG of Prisons, Punjab, referred to the section 40 of the Prisons Act, 1900 and stated that since Mr Zardari was also facing trial in different cases in the Punjab, his shifting to a jail in Sindh would require approval of the Punjab government in consultation with the Sindh government.

The letter further stated that “in view of the above, it is requested that necessary approval for his shifting to Central Jail, Karachi, for his production before the court may be communicated after the decision of his cases in Punjab”.

Mr Zardari, who was taken into custody on Nov 5, 1996, following the dismissal of his wife’s government, is facing trial in five cases in Punjab and six in Sindh.

Reacting to the letter of the Punjab jail chief to the home secretary, Shahadat Awan, counsel for Mr Zardari, said the high-handedness on part of the government was evident from the reply of the IG prisons, Punjab, “who through his letter has asked the home secretary for shifting and production of Mr Zardari in Karachi after the decision of his cases in Punjab.

He said his client was being kept away from Sindh intentionally. He said it was an established practice in judiciary that old cases or the cases involving harsher punishments are tried on a priority basis.

Mr Awan, who is also the president of Peoples Lawyers’ Forum, deplored that contrary to the established practice in judiciary, Mr Zardari was not being shifted to Sindh where he was facing trial in as many as six cases, which included four murder cases.

He told Dawn that the commencement of trial of Mr Zardari was not in sight in “these circumstances”. “It is tantamount to intentionally creating hindrances in the judicial proceedings, which is an offence and pendency of proceedings in this situation is an abuse of process of law”.

The five different courts, trying Asif Ali Zardari, husband of former prime minister Benazir Bhutto, in six cases, have issued over 280 orders for his production during the past two years. However, none of them was ever complied with.