Former president and Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) Co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari on Tuesday claimed that all corruption cases against him were politically motivated but instead of resorting to “settlement”, he had continued to prove his innocence in courts.
“Those who call acquittal from cases result of any settlement don’t have a clue about the reality. I have fought for a very long time to prove my innocence in all cases,” Zardari told reporters during a press conference in Islamabad.
“There is a long story behind each case registered against me yet it is so easy to call it muk-muka [settlement],” he said, adding that 12 cases were framed against him during former president Ghulam Ishaq Khan’s tenure. “I was politically victimised,” he added.
On August 26, an accountability court in Rawalpindi had given the PPP co-chairman a clean chit in the sixth and final corruption reference against him after the prosecution failed to establish the charges levelled against him 19 years ago during the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz’s second term.
In the reference, Zardari and his slain wife, former prime minister Benazir Bhutto, were accused of acquiring assets through illegal means and beyond their known sources of incomes. Accountability courts have already acquitted Zardari in five corruption cases since 2014: the SGS, Cotecna, Ursus Tractors, Polo Ground and ARY Gold references.
Addressing the press conference, the former president said that he was tortured in prison and that he was accused of committing suicide. He said that he did not intend to take legal action against those who had made these cases against him as the party did not believe in taking revenge and holding political prisoners.
“My party never engaged in seeking revenge,” he said.
When asked about his current rapport with the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) government, Zardari said that he had “saved” their government for the sake of democracy. He added that he was not upset with the incumbent government and was open to dialogue.
Referring to the recent disqualification of former prime minister Nawaz Sharif from holding office, he said Benazir was twice removed from the PM House but no rally was organised by PPP against the decisions. “The National Reconciliation Ordinance brought democracy, Nawaz, and elections back to Pakistan,” he said.
Zardari criticised the National Accountability Bureau (NAB), accusing it of taking bribes. “NAB blackmails the ordinary Joe and accepts bribes to give them a clear chit,” he said.
He went on to say that he was never accused of wrongdoings in his five-year tenure of holding office because he never held on to power and authority. “Engaging in power games only result in imprisonment and death sentences,” said Zardari.
He went on to say that to topple Benazir Bhutto’s government, Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto’s son, Murtaza, was ‘martyred’.