ISLAMABAD, May 24: The Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) has urged the Commonwealth to take note and examine the conduct of the trial on May 17 in which what it called the due process and right to defence were denied to the twice-elected prime minister of Pakistan.

“It is feared that Judge Mansoor Ali Khan is acting under pressure,” PPP acting secretary-general Raza Rabbani said in a letter addressed to the secretary-general of the Commonwealth, Donald McKinnon, expressing concern over denial of due process and a fair trial to Ms Bhutto by the military regime in the SGS

case.

The letter also drew attention of the Commonwealth to how Ms Bhutto was declared as proclaimed offender by the court despite being represented by her counsel.

Regrettably, since the overthrow of the PPP government in 1996, military hardliners formed a front organization for political purposes under the disguise of anti-corruption, the letter said.

Mr Rabbani said a former prosecutor had written of NAB pressuring the courts by telling them to behave. Special salaries and perks were offered as a financial incentives to judges serving in the trial courts, he alleged.

“It is widely known that the proceedings are watched by intelligence officials to ensure that all goes according to script. Ms Bhutto fears that the judge is acting under pressure in the presence of such individuals in a country where half of the Supreme Court was sacked by the military dictator.”

The PPP leader said that the Supreme Court had already set aside the conviction of Ms Bhutto in the SGS case after tape-recorded conversations revealed that the course of justice was perverted by the then regime in collusion with the trial judge.