ISLAMABAD, Oct 8: Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) Chairperson Benazir Bhutto has welcomed the release of Syed Yousaf Raza Gillani, the party’s vice-chairman, after a five-year ordeal following his bail by the Lahore High Court.

The former prime minister paid tributes to Mr Gillani for facing the trials and tribulations with courage and fortitude.

She said she felt proud of the PPP workers who had honour, character, integrity and courage for it took strength to defend the principles of freedom and equality in a country which had remained for long periods under military dictatorship.

By refusing to bow to the pressures of imprisonment and the temptations to leave the party in exchange for an end to his imprisonment while enduring the rigours of prison for nearly six years, Yousuf Raza Gillani has illuminated the path of principled politics, Ms Bhutto said in a statement on Sunday.

Mr Gillani was sentenced to 10 years in jail by the Rawalpindi accountability court for allegedly making illegal appointments as speaker in the National Assembly during the PPP government 1993-96.

She said for the PPP it was clear that Mr Gillani’s incarceration was politically motivated to break the PPP as, according to reports, others charged with similar allegations who joined the ruling party were acquitted.

Ms Bhutto said history would forever record the honourable manner in which a principled man sacrificed his personal happiness and that of his family to defend political, social and economic rights of the people of Pakistan for which the party he belonged to was striving to restore.

She called for an end to the politicisation of the investigative and judicial process through special courts and special laws to put Pakistan back on the track as a nation of laws and justice. She said a truth and reconciliation commission was needed to acknowledge the victims of state oppression.