‘Jail affected Zardari health’

Islamabad, Sept. 3: Amid news reports that PPP co-chairman and presidential candidate Asif Ali Zardari was "mentally ill" due to the 11-year-long incarceration, his party sources have said that it was natural to have psychological impact on one’s mind after living in jail for 11 years.

They said that Mr Zardari was kept in jail in severe conditions for 11 years and that it was bound to have an impact on his health. The harsh conditions may have adversely affected the health of Mr Zardari, but he had fully recovered afterwards, the News quoted them as saying. The party sources are of the view that both Mr Zardari and his slain wife Benazir Bhutto were the target of political victimisation and that fake corruption cases were framed against them. Meanwhile, during his 11-year-long incarceration over corruption cases, Mr Zardari had presented as many as 200 medical certificates in different courts in order to delay the hearings of the cases.

Disclosing this, sources said, the much-discussed medical reports about his mental disorders were also "challenged by the government of Pakistan as fake".

Sources in the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) told this correspondent that the Bureau in early 2007 wrote to the London high court and questioned the authenticity of the medical report that recently made headlines in the national and international media.

"We wrote to the London high court that the government of Pakistan believes that the psychiatrist’s report was a case of perjury and meant to delay the proceedings of the corruption case," a source said, adding that the London high court was requested to constitute an independent medical board to ascertain if the accused is really suffering from psychological disorders.

—ANI