LAHORE: Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) chairperson Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari commented on the death sentence awarded to Kulbhushan Jadhav by a military court on Monday saying his party was opposed to the death penalty on principle.

Speaking at a media talk at the residence of the party’s south Punjab chapter chief and former governor Makhdoom Ahmed Mahmood in Model Town, Mr Bhutto-Zardari recalled that his maternal grandfather (Zulfikar Ali Bhutto) had also been sentenced to death.

“The Indian spy Kulbhushan Jadhav’s issue is controversial… [He] must not have been here in the first place.”

The PPP chairman condemned atrocities committed by Indian forces in India-held Kashmir and regretted that Islamabad had not raised the issue properly at relevant forums. “It seems that our foreign policy on the dispute has weakened.”

Says his party opposes capital punishment on principle

Answering a question about the possible Panamagate case verdict, he said it was not just the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz, but the entire country, on trial to show the world how the corrupt were held accountable in [local courts].

He said those accused in the Panama Papers case must be held accountable, and that he, like the rest of the nation, was awaiting the court’s decision.

Regarding the delay in the verdict, he said that he wouldn’t say much as the matter was sub judice, but added that it appeared to be a gimmick of the PML-N.

The PPP leader criticised the government for what he described as torture of his party workers to divert the masses’ attention away from Panamagate.

He claimed that the government was harassing PPP workers and lamented that the government had stopped a workers’ convention in Sialkot, which was being organised by former federal minister Firdaus Ashiq Awan

“The government acted undemocratically by not allowing the workers’ convention in Sialkot,” he said, wondering aloud how the government would stomach the massive events the PPP was planning on holding in Punjab if it couldn’t even allow a routine programme to go smoothly.

Published in Dawn, April 11th, 2017