KARACHI, Feb 2: The co-chairman of Pakistan People’s Party Senator Asif Ali Zardari has condemned the latest government move to ban PPP leader and president of Supreme Court Bar Association Chaudhry Aitzaz Ahsan’s entry into Sindh.

The renewed detention orders were served on Mr Ahsan while he was at the Lahore airport to take a flight to Sukkur for travelling to Garhi Khuda Bakhsh and Naudero to offer fateha for slain PPP chairperson Benazir Bhutto.

Mr Zardari said that the regime was bent upon tearing apart the whole fabric of society, sending the entire nation into a slough of despondency through its unconstitutional and undemocratic actions. By issuing such orders, he said, the regime was breaking the seams of the federation and creating disharmony among the provinces.

The PPP co-chairman demanded immediate withdrawal of the order against Mr Ahsan and condemned the reported detentions of senior lawyers Tariq Mehmood, Ali Ahmed Kurd and others.

“Aitzaz’s continued and renewed incarceration is both a slap on the face of a tottering and insecure regime’s own desperate attempts to shut down dissent but also an index of its open contempt for the rule of law,” said Sherry Rehman, PPP’s Central Information Secretary.

She said, “It is clear that the regime is terrified of the Supreme Court Bar Association president’s lawful activities in the country. By chasing him all over Lahore as he tried to depart for Naudero to condole with the family of Shaheed Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto, it is also clear that the government is getting more and more anxious about the democratic forces arrayed against it on the eve of a general election.

“The muzzling of the press, incarceration of deposed judges and other members of civil society, the legal community and political workers by the regime has exposed its intentions to the whole world. This is not the way forward for any government committed to saving Pakistan from the throes of political instability, social unrest and growing mass hunger on a large scale. Instead of saving the country from political polarisation and further conflict, this regime’s actions only aim to preserve power through coercion and state-sponsored violence on law-abiding civilians,” she added.

Demanding the immediate release of Mr Ahsan, she said that the PPP would not accept violation of fundamental rights in Pakistan.

PPP leader Taj Haider told a news conference at the Karachi Press Club on Saturday that the regime had ‘tailored’ the polling stations scheme to the advantage of the ruling coalition partners.

Accompanied by Karachi PPP President Rashid Rabbani and others, Mr Haider alleged that the number of polling stations had been reduced to keep their voters away.