Recent media reports suggest that the former president of Pakistan and the co-chairperson of Pakistan’s People’s Party (PPP), Asif Ali Zardari has been admitted to a hospital after his health suddenly deteriorated on Friday.
Mr. Zardari has undergone various health tests and is under treatment at the Ziaud’Din Hospital in Karachi.
His children have gathered in the city to visit him, as PPP’s chairman reportedly has arrived in the city from Islamabad and Bakhtawar Bhutto landed from Dubai.
Central Information Secretary PPP-P and MNA Shazia Atta Marri tweeted yesterday that the cause of sudden deterioration has been “exertion and exhaustion from traveling for court appearances and Budget session.”
Former President Asif Ali Zardari has been admitted to a private hospital in Karachi following advice from his doctors due to exertion and exhaustion from travelling for court appearances and Budget session.
— Shazia Atta Marri (@ShaziaAttaMarri) July 2, 2021
It is worth mentioning that the former president was in Punjab’s capital for a week and had left for Islamabad on 26th June as reportedly his attempts to secure “electables” in Punjab remained fruitless.
Mr. Zardari also attended the National Assembly session for the recent 2021-22 Budget.
The former president appeared before an Accountability Court of Islamabad on 29th June in a fresh reference regarding the purchase of properties through dubious transactions of Rs 8 billion filed against him and his stenographer Mushtaq Ahmed.
This is the fifth reference filed by the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) against Mr. Zardari in the row as he was already facing Park Lane properties reference, Harish and Company case regarding fictitious contracts worth Rs 1 billion, a reference about dubious transaction of Rs 14 billion through fake bank accounts and Toshakhana Reference.
Asif Ali Zardari had also filed a request for the transfer of his trial from the NAB court in Islamabad to those in Karachi, based on health.
However, the accountability bureau has rejected his application, and reportedly, one of the director generals of NAB has written a 13-page report to the supreme court of Pakistan explaining the reasons.
It said that the courts in Islamabad had already indicted the former president and transferring the case to the Karachi branch would be both logistically inconvenient and legally unrequired.
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NAB said the accused has already been exempted from personal appearance and a “mere convenience of accused persons cannot be termed as a valid and cogent reason or grounds for transfer of references from Islamabad to Karachi”.
The report added, “Additionally it is the defense side which is seeking adjournments from the trial court in order to delay the proceedings, and not even a single adjournment has been sought by NAB.”