Former petroleum minister Dr Asim Hussain's lawyer claimed on Thursday that his client's confessional video statement against Owais Muzaffar alias Tappi that was aired on local television channels on Wednesday night was obtained by force. At a press conference in his office, senior lawyer Anwar Mansoor Khan said that Dr Asim Hussain does not even remember giving the statement and it seems that the statement was taken under duress.
He added the video appears to be quite old and was probably made at the time when the former minister was in the Rangers' custody. In the video statement aired on local television channels on Wednesday, Dr Asim made startling allegations at former president Asif Ali Zardari's foster brother Owais Muzaffar alias Tappi. Dr Hussain had said that former Sindh minister Owais Muzaffar was the 'working' chief minister of Sindh during the second term of the Pakistan People's Party and was involved in doing all sorts of corruption.-INP
A press release adds: Addressing a press conference on Thursday afternoon, Anwar said he will request the court to stop such activities forthwith. In his statement Dr Asim's counsel said last night there was a clip run by electronic media in which his client was shown giving statement against a third person. This clip belongs to the period when "Dr Asim was taken by Rangers in custody, tortured, forced to record statements of their choice and did not allow seeing his lawyers."
He said that under the law, such statements which are taken under duress, without presence of any magistrate, in solitary confinement and under the influence of drugs have no legal sanctity. "We were expecting such illegal moves, therefore, not today but in year 2015 we had moved applications on behalf of Dr Asim's mother," he added. Through these applications Dr Ejaz Fatima, mother of Dr Asim Hussain, had requested Sindh High Court to declare that the Rangers nor any of the Respondents can cause Dr Asim to self incriminate himself under pressure or extract information through any means of torture, and to declare that any statement made whilst in custody is inadmissible in evidence.
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