NAB tried to use ECP to proceed against Zardari'

Sunday, 20 Dec, 2009

LAHORE: The Former Secretary of the Election Commission of Pakistan said that the National Accountability Bureau tried to use ECP to proceed against Benazir Bhutto and Asif Zardari in 2005.

During an interview with DawnNews, Kanwar Dilshad claimed that the bureau, infamous for political victimisation in the past, forced the ECP to file fraud cases against the couple.

'In 2005, NAB pressurised us to file cases against Benazir and Zardari for filing wrong assets. But we refused to do so because we believed our impartiality would be affected,' Dilshad stated.

The then NAB Chairman Shahid Aziz agreed with the Election Commission’s viewpoint, but after much convincing. Now that the fate of President Zardari is again in the limelight following the Supreme Court's judgement against the NRO, some claim that with the sudden termination of the ordinance, President Zardari should be considered ineligible for the presidential elections, he already won in 2008.

But none of the presidential candidates ever raised objections against his candidature.

'No candidate ever raised objection against the candidatures of Mr Zardari. Mushahid Hussain was the candidate of the PML-Q and Saeeduzzaman Siddiqui was the candidate of the PML-N. Both of them did not file any complain to the ECP to reject the nomination papers of Mr Zardari,' said Dilshad.

'It has been very clear in the law that once the candidatures are accepted of any candidate by the Election Commission, no appeal can be filed against,' he said.