The Pakistan People's Party (PPP) on Thursday threatened to launch a 'mass movement' against what it termed the 'illegal and immoral' detention of former senator Asif Ali Zardari and demanded of the government to release him immediately. The party leaders were speaking at a news conference here on the completion of Zardari's eight-year imprisonment.
He was arrested on November 4, 1996 from Lahore moments before then President Farooq Leghari dissolved the government of his spouse and former premier Benazir Bhutto.
Speaking on the occasion, Senator Safdar Abbasi said the government had no moral or legal justification to keep Zardari in captivity anymore.
He challenged the detention on legal grounds and said Zardari had already spent eight years in prison, which in any case was more than life term (seven years) according to jail rules, so he must be released without any delay.
He accused the government of using Zardari's detention a tool to keep PPP which, according to him was the only party having roots in public, away from the mainstream of national politics.
Asked to comment on reports about the PPP deal with the government to secure his release, which appeared in national media from time to time, Safdar said: "These (reports) are baseless and propaganda to spoil the sacrifices of Asif Ali Zardari for the country and party."
"I can tell you with authority that there is no reality in these reports whatsoever. It is mere propaganda to defame the heroic character of Zardari," Abbasi added.
Reports of the government-PPP deal to secure the release of party's detained leaders and return of Benazir to the country have been appearing in the media regularly during the last few months.
The latest of the series of such reports was published in a national daily on Thursday claiming that the government had struck a deal with the PPP under which Asif Ali Zardari would be released and in return the PPP would shun its struggle against President General Pervez Musharraf.
Another PPP leader MNA Nahid Khan also contradicted reports and said: "His (Asif) detention is in total negation of country's laws and the party struggle for his release will continue."
Ms. Khan, who has been working as personal secretary of Ms. Bhutto during her tenure as premier, also challenged the credibility of courts, saying PPP did not expect justice from judges who took oath under Provisional Constitutional Order (PCO).
Punjab Assembly member Shafqat Abbasi Advocate and Senator Farooq A. Naik also spoke on the occasion.
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