Pakistani opposition leader Bilawal Bhutto accuses government of waging 'politics of revenge'

Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, chairman of the Pakistan People's Party (PPP), addresses to unveil party's manifesto for the upcoming general election, during a press conference in Islamabad, Pakistan June 28, 2018. REUTERS/Faisal Mahmood

Asif Shahzad-MARCH 20, 2019

ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - The leader of one of Pakistan’s main opposition parties, Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, accused the government on Wednesday of deliberately targeting political opponents after an anti-graft agency summoned him and his father for questioning.

Hundreds of angry supporters of Bhutto’s liberal, secular Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) thronged the office of the anti-graft agency. Some of them clashed with police, chanting “Down with Imran Khan!” Khan is Pakistan’s prime minister.

“This isn’t a system of accountability. This is a system of political engineering. This is a system of the politics of revenge,” Bhutto told a news conference after being questioned at the headquarters of the National Accountability Bureau (NAB).

The NAB said in a statement an investigative team had quizzed Bhutto and his father Asif Ali Zardari for around two hours about three cases. It gave no details on the cases, but said both men had been given questionnaires to be handed back within 10 days.

Officials have previously told Pakistan’s Supreme Court that the cases were related to corruption and money laundering.

The family denies all accusations of corruption and says the cases have been fabricated for political reasons.

Bhutto, son of assassinated two-time prime minister Benazir Bhutto, said one of the cases he had been questioned about dated back to when he was a newly born baby.

The transfer of the cases to the city of Rawalpindi from Karachi, where his party governs, showed bad intentions, he added.

FAMILY WOES

Bhutto’s party rules Pakistan’s southern Sindh province and came third in last July’s general election, which Khan’s Pakistan Movement for Justice (Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf) won.

Bhutto’s mother Benazir was assassinated in a gun and suicide attack in December 2007. His father Zardari spent 11 years in jail before his release in 2004 on corruption and murder charges, which were never proved.

“These things aren’t new to me. I have seen this all as a little boy along with my mother visiting these accountability offices and these jails,” Bhutto said.

 

Bhutto says the latest corruption campaign against him and his fellow party leaders is intended to reverse provincial autonomy and divert regional funds to the federal government.

Opposition parties say Khan won power with the backing of Pakistan’s powerful military, which he and the army deny.

Writing by Asif Shahzad; Editing by Gareth Jones