Islamabad: Asif Zardari claimed mental illness as reason for not appearing personally in court while in exile in the UK.
A report in Wednesday’s Financial Times said the court appearances were related to corruption charges filed against him by the Pakistani government.
Zardari's lawyers filed medical records in the court that said he was suffering from dementia, depression and post traumatic stress.
The records also quoted a New York psychiatrist who described Zardari as suffering from emotional instability brought on by long periods in jail and that he suffered memory and concentration problems.
“Zardari is now healthy and his doctors had declared him fit to run for political office, he is widely expected to win the election for president early next month,” says Pakistan's high commissioner in London, Wajid Shamsul Hasan.
“Many people were very impressed to see Mr Zardari go through the trauma of the assassination of Benazir Bhutto, he held himself together, held his family, especially his children, at the difficult time,” Hasan added.
Zardari, who leads the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP), had spent 11 of the past 20 years in Pakistani prisons fighting corruption allegations, during which he said he was tortured.
The case was dropped in March this year.
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