ISLAMABAD, April 21: ARD chief Nawabzada Nasarullah Khan has expressed his resentment over the way Asif Ali Zardari is being victimized.

He was speaking at a seminar organized by the Zardari Release Committee on ‘Asif Zardari, a prisoner or hostage’ here at a hotel on Sunday.

Asif Zardari did nothing which could have justified his detention, the Nawabzada said, adding the only wrong that he had done in the eyes of the rulers was to marry Benazir Bhutto.

Paying tributes to Asif Zardari for braving the “prolonged political victimisation”, he said the former senator was no doubt a hostage as all the cases against him were fabricated.

He criticized President Pervez Musharraf for banning Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif from contesting the forthcoming election. He also slammed the presidential referendum and said that all the democratic forces under the Alliance for Restoration of Democracy, PONM and Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal would assemble in Lahore on Friday to work out a joint strategy against the “undemocratic and unconstitutional scheme of the president”.

Pakistan People‘s Party leader Makhdoom Amin Fahim said that institutions, including the judiciary, had also been made hostage by the regime and added that for the restoration of rule of law and respect for the fundamental rights all the democratic forces should fight together.

He said Asif Zardari was being detained to force Benazir Bhutto to take dictation from military regime. Asif Zardari, he said, was innocent as no corruption charges had so far been proved against him.

PML Leader Zafar Iqbal Jhagra demanded that Asif Zardari should be released immediately.

He said Nawaz Sharif would be back soon and that “illegitimate rulers cannot block his way any further”.

Pakistan Muslim League Information Secretary Syed Zafar Ali Shah, Hafiz Hussain Ahmed of Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam and some other PPP leaders also spoke.