SHC issues notices to Zardari, Bilawal in disqualification plea

KARACHI: Sindh High Court on Monday issued notices to the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) leaders Bilawal Bhutto Zardari and Asif Ali Zardari in a disqualification plea against them for representing two parties at a time, ARY NEWS reported.

A petition filed by a lawyer Iqbal Kazmi said that both the leaders claim themselves as leaders of both the PPP and the Pakistan People’s Party Parliamentarians (PPPP), therefore they should be declared disqualified from their National Assembly seats.

He said that the PPP is a separate entity with party symbol of a sword as compared to the PPPP that contested polls on the arrow symbol. “Even the PPP is not registered with the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP),” he said and added that if a party is not registered then why these people had run activities under its banner.

Their activities under this banner come under deceit and therefore they no more remain Sadiq and Ameen (honest and righteous) paving a way for their disqualification, the plea said.

The court issued notices to the top PPP leaders and the ECP to submit their response over the matter.

On February 13, Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) leader Bilawal Bhutto Zardari on Thursday appeared before the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) in in a Joint Venture (JV) Opal 255 corruption case.

Bilawal appeared before the NAB’s investigation team, where after quizzing of 30 minutes, he was handed over a questionnaire comprising of 32 questions.

Sources said the PPP chairman failed to give satisfactory answers to the NAB team during interrogation.

The PPP leader has been asked to submit his reply within two weeks.

Bilawal Bhutto is accused of taking out an amount of Rs1.22 billion from a fake bank account to utilize it for his personal company.

Bilawal Bhutto Zardari argued during the NAB probe that he was a child when the transaction was made, however, the documents bear his signatures.