The Pakistan People's Party (PPP) has apprised Commonwealth secretary-general Donald McKinnon of misuse of the poverty alleviation funds. Senator Rukhsana Zuberi, in a letter to the secretary-general, said: "I am writing to inform you the regime in Pakistan is misusing state funds meant for alleviating the poverty on political witch-hunt.
Recently the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) received a setback when the Isle of Man High Court dismissed a petition to which it was a party, claiming corruption against Senator Asif Ali Zardari, a PPP leader, she said. The bureau, in a separate letter was asked to pay costs.
Instead of accepting the verdict of the court and keeping in mind billions of rupees already spent in the last decade on this political witch-hunt in lieu of payments made to lawyers, detectives, media companies, liquidator and on the NAB itself. The NAB has gone in for an appeal.
"It is immoral to use state funds to malign the opposition, particularly, when the courts in Pakistan have already dismissed seven corruption charges over the last decade. Now the Isle of Man court has also dismissed the corruption charges."
Recalling the judgement of Isle of Man High Court, Rukhsana Zuberi wrote: "In the matter of Rockwood estate in Surrey, an Isle of Man court had ordered the NAB to pay costs to the owner as well as Zardari and part costs to the liquidator. This order came after the NAB had already squandered billions of rupees in a decade-long media trial, wrongly claiming the Rockwood estate was bought through corruption proceeds by Zardari."
She requested the secretary-general to consider the matter with a view to stop national resources from being squandered in a poverty-ridden country on politically-motivated litigation that have not been proved in a decade and ended up allowing one political party supporting the military dictatorship to use state funds against the democratic alternative.
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