Pakistan opposition leader gets 23-year jail term for treason

Asian Political News, April 19, 2004

ISLAMABAD, April 12 Kyodo

Prominent opposition leader Makhdoom Javed Hashmi was sentenced Monday to 23 years in jail on charges of treason and inciting the army, state run Pakistan Television has reported.

Judge Asas Raza handed down the sentence to Hashmi, de facto leader of the Pakistan Muslim League, in Adiala Jail in Rawalpindi in the presence of a large number of politicians and reporters.

Hashmi, an outspoken critic of President Gen. Pervez Musharraf, was arrested in October last year for allegedly defaming the military and trying to incite mutiny.

He had earlier claimed to have received a letter from the country's armed forces purportedly criticizing Musharraf's role in the U.S.-led ''war on terror.'' Both the government and army dismissed the letter as a fabrication.

Hashmi is also president of the 15-party Alliance for the Restoration of Democracy.