The Hindu : Benazir denied due process of law: PPP

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Jul 11, 2002

International

International

Benazir denied due process of law: PPP

By B. Muralidhar Reddy

ISLAMABAD JULY 10. The Pakistan Peoples' Party (PPP) has reacted sharply to the conviction of the former Prime Minister, Benazir Bhutto, to three years rigorous imprisonment, terming it "denial of due process of law" by the Musharraf regime to its leader.

An accountability court in Rawalpindi on Tuesday awarded the sentence to Ms. Bhutto for not appearing before it in the gold import case.

In May last, the same court convicted her to three years in jail, also for not appearing before it in the SGS pre-shipment inspection case.

A PPP spokesperson said that last time also defence counsel pleaded before the court that Ms. Bhutto had been exempted from personal appearance by a competent court and that she was deemed to be present in the court through him. The lawyer had argued that the conviction proceedings/order was "malafide and illegal and also vitiated by the personal bias and malice towards Ms. Bhutto''. The defence counsel's plea was, however, rejected by the judge and the former Prime Minister was declared a proclaimed offender and convicted in absentia.

``The Tuesday conviction has come amid PPP spearheading the campaign against Gen. Musharraf's constitutional package as a fraud aimed at perpetuating the rule by the junta''.

The spokesman said that the PPP viewed such convictions as part of the regime's political package and forcefully condemned what was dubbed as "manipulation of judicial process through denial of the due process and political vendetta against Ms. Bhutto''.

The spokesman alleged that the Musharraf regime had been releasing from jails those convicted by courts while Ms. Bhutto was being denied due process and awarded conviction behind her back. In the gold import case, the company itself — the ARY Gold — had denied any wrongdoing and won a case in the UAE Supreme Court against the Pakistan Government that had accused it of corruption in the contract.``Having been unable to secure a conviction on the merits of the case the military regime decided to manipulate the judicial process and convict Ms. Bhutto for absence from appearance and make it appear as though she has been convicted for corruption,'' the spokesman said. The PPP has decided to write to the Chief Justice of the Lahore High Court, the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, the U.N. Rapporteur on Judges as well as other human rights bodies on "how the military regime is subverting the judicial process for political ends".

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