LAHORE, April 20: PPP leader Munir Ahmad Khan has urged foreign ambassadors to use their influence for forcing the government into releasing the “prisoner of conscience” Asif Ali Zardari.

In a letter to ambassadors on Sunday, he said the government was victimizing the “Senator”, who had been jailed for the last six years and five months.

Due to continuous confinement, stress and unavailability of adequate treatment in the prison, Mr Zardari had developed diseases like diabetes, high blood pressure and spinal ache, he said, alleging that the government was committing human rights violation by not allowing Mr Zardari a bail on medical grounds.

The “handpicked” judges of accountability courts had been delaying the hearing of cases against the confined leader who was being denied the benefit of Pakistani law that if a case remained undecided for two years the accused would be acquitted, Mr Khan further alleged.

Accusing the government of harassing the counsel for Mr Zardari, he said the government had flouted the Supreme Court orders for completing the hearing of seven references against Mr Zardari within three months and then shifting him to Karachi for trial in six criminal cases there.

He alleged that the jailed PPP leader had been offered acquittal in all cases if he would persuade his spouse, Benazir Bhutto, into retiring from politics.