ISLAMABAD - Pakistan People’s Party on Monday challenged the government to prove allegations against PPP co-Chairman Asif Ali Zardari.

Speaking at a joint news conference here, PPP leaders Senator Sherry Rehman, Nayyar Bokhari, Farhatullah Babar and Senator Sassi Palejo said that the government had filed ‘fake’ cases against Asif Ali Zardari. They rejected the Joint Investigation Team’s report in Zardari’s money-laundering case. The PPP leaders said that the party was yet to get an attested copy of the JIT report.

Earlier in the day, the JIT, constituted on the orders of the Supreme Court to investigate the multi-billion rupees fake accounts scam, held Zardari and Omni Group responsible for suspicious transactions. The JIT presented its probe report before the 2-judge Supreme Court bench headed by Chief Justice Mian Saqib Nisar.

PPP Vice President Sherry Rehman said that the government representatives were meeting the JIT team and fabricating facts. She said that the past governments had also filed cases against Zardari but nothing was ever proven.

She said that only opposition parties were being held accountable in the country. She said that a person who violated the Constitution was given immunity and was living abroad.

Referring to the money-laundering case against Zardari, she said that the JIT members’ meetings with the ministers made the investigations controversial.

The PPP leader said that the Federal Investigation Agency chief’s brother had contested election against the PPP and expressed concerns over the investigations launched by the JIT.

She said that a joke was being carried out in the name of accountability in the country and asked that is it a Madina-like state.

The PPP leader maintained that Zardari had been imprisoned for 12 years but nothing could be proved against him. She said that the JIT was trying to make Asif Ali Zardari controversial.

Nayyar Bokhari said that the JIT in the Zardari case was formed by a political opponent. “Bashir Memon has animosity against the PPP. The JIT report was against Zulfiakr Ali Bhutto in 1977 and now we have a new report against Zardari. Unless convicted, Zardari and Faryal Talpur are innocent,” he added. The PPP leader said that when Parklane Company was established, Bilawal Bhutto Zardari was only one year old. “The PPP does not fear fake cases. We are not afraid of jails,” he said.

Bokhari said that the PPP’s Central Executive Committee will meet on December 26 to finalise the future line of action. Farhatullah Babar said that government was interfering in the so-called accountability process against the opposition. He alleged that the government was trying to corner the opposition by filing fake and fabricated cases against the main figures.

Meanwhile, PPP Senator Mustafa Nawaz Khokhar on Monday said that the JIT report had made the JIT a laughing stock in the eyes of the nation.

Khokhar, the spokesperson to PPP chief Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, said that the so-called money-laundering case stories were cooked up that ended in receipt of breakfast, laundry charges and prices of sacrificial goats. He said that jesters of this JIT under PTI influence had been exposed before the nation.  In a statement, the lawmaker said that it was also unfortunate that Supreme Court did not take notice of the leakage of the JIT report before it was presented to the top court.

“Bias was exposed at the time when advisor to the Prime Minister on accountability Shahzad Akbar had a secret meeting with the JIT members which came into the open afterwards. Party will consult the legal team and then the party will make its strategy,” Senator Khokhar said.  On the sentence given by Accountability Court against Nawaz Sharif Senator Khokhar said that it proved that accountability is only for the opposition.

He asked that as to when the government members will be held accountable.

“There is no doubt that government and the NAB are hands in gloves. This connivance is pushing the country towards chaos and anarchy. Pakistan has been further divided instead of one Pakistan slogan by the PTI,” the Senator said.

Separately, Amir Fida Paracha, the spokesperson to Asif Ali Zardari, said that proceeding in the Supreme Court and the accountability court judgment clearly ‘teaches us that we should avoid taking suo-moto notices with impunity’.

In a statement, he said that such kinds of situation which has arisen in the past and more recently just today generates several questions regarding judicial system of Pakistan.

Paracha said that it was well known phrase in judicial history that justice delayed was justice denied but at the same time the phrase ‘justice rushed is justice crushed’ was more relevant in current situation. “There is no relief or remedy for a person or family once defamed through this hasty justice option which has been assumed by the judiciary,” he added.