A controversial new book by Pakistani business tycoon, alleging that former President Asif Zardari had tried to kill him, has mysteriously disappeared from all the book shops in Karachi, the home city of the influential Bhutto family.
Just a week after its release, the book, entitled "Truth always prevails" the memoirs of Sadruddin Hashwani, has disappeared from all the book outlets in Pakistan's biggest port city.
A spokesman for Hashwani, who owns the Marriott and Pearl Continental chain in Pakistan, said that the book has been removed forcibly from all the book outlets.
"What is interesting is this has happened only in Karachi and not anywhere else in Pakistan," he said.
Zardari heads the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) which has ruled the southern Sindh province for seven years now and he carries immense clout in Karachi, the city of highly influential Bhutto dynasty.
Former Pakistan Prime Minister, late Benazir Bhutoo was the wife of Zardari and his son Bilawal Bhutto Zardari is the current Chairman of the PPP.
Representatives of some of the leading publication houses in Pakistan were not willing to comment on the issue but when pressed stated the book has been banned in Karachi. Though, they did not elaborate on whose orders.
"It has been removed from outlets because it had baseless allegations against a former President and some very derogatory language," an outlet manager said.
Zardari has already served a legal notice for Rs one billion on Sadruddin Hashwani for "tarnishing his name and that of the PPP" in his book.
Hashwani has alleged that Zardari had tried to kill him due to a three-decade-old enmity and even alleged of a bigger conspiracy behind the 2008 Marriot hotel bombing in Islamabad that killed 54 people and injured over 200 others.
The PPP co-chairman has also served notices on the publisher and distributor of the book - the Penguin Books in India, and Liberty Books in Karachi.
