ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — A former president of Pakistan, Asif Ali Zardari, was indicted on Monday in a cash laundering case, the most recent authorized motion in opposition to him and one which his supporters say is a part of a wider development in opposition to politicians against Prime Minister Imran Khan.
Mr. Zardari is the widower of former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, who was assassinated in 2007. He served as president from 2008 to 2013, and is at present a member of Parliament. He’s additionally going through a raft of courtroom circumstances.
He was arrested in June 2019 by anticorruption officers in a separate money laundering case and launched on bail on medical grounds in December.
Through the courtroom listening to on Monday, a sister of Mr. Zardari, Faryal Talpur, and 13 different folks have been additionally indicted. Mr. Zardari and his sister denied the fees.
The costs in opposition to Mr. Zardari are associated to cash laundering by means of suspicious financial institution accounts and corporations.
He and different opposition politicians have accused the Khan authorities of political victimization. Mr. Khan, who won the 2018 election on a robust anticorruption platform, denies the accusation. However critics say that Mr. Khan’s authorities, in collusion with Pakistan’s highly effective navy, is focusing on the opposition within the guise of accountability.
When requested by courtroom reporters for his feedback on Monday’s indictment, Mr. Zardari replied with a verse in Urdu: “We’ve handed by means of such junctures earlier additionally.”
Earlier than turning into president in 2008, Mr. Zardari spent 11 years in jail on corruption and homicide prices. He was by no means convicted and has maintained his innocence, however allegations of corruption have adopted him in his political profession. The previous president has remained lively in politics, and his son, Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, is the chairman of the opposition Pakistan Peoples Social gathering.
Chaudhry Manzoor Ahmed, one other senior Pakistan Peoples Social gathering determine, stated in an interview that the indictment was a routine course of in courtroom proceedings and that the true difficulty was a scarcity of proof. “The place is the proof?” he stated. “There isn’t a proof in opposition to Mr. Zardari.”
“He has spent a number of years in jail on trumped-up prices,” Mr. Ahmed added. “So, it’s nothing for him. However for us the most important concern is his ailing well being.”
Mr. Ahmed stated that the federal government had been rising the strain on opposition events since Sept. 20, after a gathering of opposition teams which have referred to as for, amongst different issues, an finish to navy interference within the Pakistan’s politics. Opposition events have additionally warned of countrywide protests in opposition to the Khan authorities and the navy subsequent month.
“These courtroom circumstances are the standard techniques to intimidate and threaten the political management,” Mr. Ahmed stated. “However we aren’t bothered by such techniques.”
Additionally on Monday, anticorruption officers arrested the chief of the opposition in Parliament, Shehbaz Sharif of the Pakistan Muslim League, after a excessive courtroom rejected his bail plea in a cash laundering case within the jap metropolis of Lahore.
Mr. Sharif is the youthful brother of the ousted prime minister, Nawaz Sharif, who’s in London for medical remedy.
The arrest was broadly anticipated; Mr. Sharif, who has served as chief minister of Punjab Province, stated final week that Mr. Khan, the prime minister, personally wished to see him behind bars.
Marriyum Aurangzeb, spokeswoman of the Pakistan Muslim League, stated on Monday that, “Shehbaz Sharif was arrested on the orders of Prime Minister Imran Khan.”
She stated the arrest was politically motivated.
