ISLAMABAD: PPP Co-chairman and former president Asif Ali Zardari has expressed concern over reports about the alleged harassment of Awami National Party (ANP) Senator Sitara Ayaz by the accountability commission of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP).

Mr Zardari in a statement issued by the PPP’s media centre here on Monday called for “dispelling the growing perception that accountability is being used to victimise opponents and for political re-engineering”.

The PPP, he said, had no tolerance for corruption and always called for across the board accountability, “but any attempt to settle political scores or rewrite social and political landscape in the name of accountability is a worse form of corruption”.

During the PPP government there were neither political prisoners nor was there any witch-hunt or political victimisation, he said, adding, “accountability must not only be above board but also be seen as such”.

Mr Zardari, who has been living in Dubai for quite some time, recalled that some weeks ago the Ehtesab Commission of KP, ruled by the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI), had also targeted former PPP provincial minister Liaquat Shabab.

“The arrest and torture of Liaquat Shabab hailing from the Nowshera constituency of Chief Minister Pervez Khattak raised serious questions about the motives behind his accountability,” he added.

The PPP leader said that there were many instances which gave rise to the perception that the province’s Ehtesab Commission was being used as a tool to achieve political objectives. He said it was strange for the commission to harass a female senator.

He said there were also instances in which the commission had allegedly taken action against people before it had been duly constituted. He cited the case of Ziaullah Afridi who was arrested and sent to jail even before the commission was duly notified.

“Morality demands that the commission should have first clarified its own legality before targeting opposition lawmakers,” he said.

Mr Zardari said the accountability commission of KP and its political masters must be held accountable for arresting opponents for past several months even before its establishment had been notified.

The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Ehtesab Commission (KPEC) issued warrants for the arrest of Senator Sitara Ayaz, for allegedly misusing her position during her tenure as a minister in the previous provincial government led by the ANP.

KPEC Director General Hamid Khan had reportedly issued the warrants a few days ago.

A team of the KPEC reportedly visited Islamabad to arrest the ANP senator from the Parliament Lodges, but the Islamabad police told it that the legislator could not be arrested without prior permission of the Senate chairman. The team had also been told that police could not carry out a raid at the Parliament Lodges without the permission of the Senate chairman.

Published in Dawn, October 20th , 2015

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