December 23, 2001	Sunday	Shawwal 7, 1422

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ATTOCK KHURD, Dec 22: PPP leader Asif Ali Zardari has underlined the need for checking the foreign interference in Kashmir, which he said had become a flashpoint today.

Speaking to newsmen after his hearing in an asset case here at the Attock Accountability Court on Saturday, he said during her recent visit to India, PPP chairperson Benazir Bhutto had urged the world community to focus on occupied Kashmir.

He said that sometime back, Ms Bhutto had warned the world about the role of Osama bin Laden in Afghanistan but her apprehensions were ignored at that time and now the entire region was paying the price of it.

Mr Zardari condemned the role of the establishment for making the country apolitical by suspending the political process only to save its own objectives. The anti-politics trend, which began in the tenure of Sikandar Mirza, was still being continued, he observed.

The establishment, he claimed, was opposed to the PPP because it was the only popular party which believed in the might of the masses for getting the country on a par with the developed world.

Commenting on the expected anti-PPP electoral alliance, he said the anti-democratic forces had formed first anti-PPP alliance in 1970, then in 1976, in 1988, in 1991, in 1993 and in 1997, but they failed to deliver the goods to the masses. “Pakistani people know, who is behind these alliances,” he claimed.

In the recent local bodies elections, he said, the government had made itself exposed by getting elected non-entities in Rawalpindi, Lahore and some other cities.

The international media and foreign observers had pointed out the flaws in the local bodies elections, Mr Zardari claimed.

A former Awami National Party minister in Nawaz Sharif cabinet, Azam Khan Hoti, held a separate meeting inside the court with Mr Zardari. A large number of PPP leaders and workers were present in the court.