KARACHI - The 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.
A petition, filed by a lawyer Iqbal Kazmi, said that both the leaders claimed 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 was a separate entity with party symbol of a sword as compared to the PPPP that contested polls on the symbol of arrow. “Even the PPP is not registered with the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP),” he said, and added that if a party was 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 responses.
Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari had appeared before the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) in a Joint Venture (JV) Opal 255 corruption case on February 13.
Bilawal appeared before the NAB’s investigation team, where after quizzing of 30 minutes, he was handed over a questionnaire consisting of 32 questions.
Sources said the PPP chairman failed to give satisfactory answers to the NAB team. The PPP leader had been asked to submit his reply within two weeks.
Bilawal is accused of borrowing an amount of Rs1.22 billion from a fake bank account to utilise it for his personal company.
Bilawal had argued during the NAB probe that he was a child when the transaction was made. However, the documents bear his signatures.