September 4, 2003	Thursday	Rajab 6, 1424

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ISLAMABAD, Sept 3: The Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) has rejected “threats of the military regime” that former prime minister Benazir Bhutto could face treason charges for divulging “state secrets.”

Senator Farhatullah Babar, a spokesman for the party, said in a statement here on Wednesday that after the arrest of several army officers for alleged links with extremist groups, “hardliners in the military regime were desperate to scandalize Benazir Bhutto.”

“Ms Bhutto did stop a Kargil-type misadventure during her tenure as prime minister, thus saving the lives of some 3,000 soldiers and officers as well as country’s honour and self-respect,” the PPP leader said.

“After the Kargil misadventure, when the matter came to public domain, then alone Ms Bhutto revealed how she had saved the national honour during her tenure. Fighting in the Kargil area threatened a possible nuclear conflict between India and Pakistan in 1999,” he said.

He said it was because of the “extraordinary leadership qualities” of Ms Bhutto that the PPP negotiated with India a redeployment to the Kargil area without prejudice to either side’s position during her first term.

However, he said, this agreement failed to take effect after the PPP government was dismissed by “elements that had fought the Afghan Jihad and were opposed to PPP policies of peace in the region.” Mr Babar said that the PPP believed that Kargil was the worst setback that Pakistan had suffered after the Bangladesh tragedy.

The PPP senator termed the threats of treason charges attempts to silence discussion on a pivotal national issue. He said following the Bangladesh tragedy in which one military dictator lost half the country, the Hamoodur Rahman Commission was established to identify the causes of the setback and to place responsibility on those, who led the country towards disintegration.

However, he said, it was strange that the regime was stalling the establishment of a commission to examine the Kargil tragedy although several years had passed since the ‘misadventure’.

He said Ms Bhutto had every right to speak about a matter of grave national importance after it entered the public domain. In fact, she even had a right to bring into the public domain policy proposals that could be damaging, in her view, to Pakistan’s national interests. As the elected leader of Pakistan, it was her duty to save the country from acts that could undermine Pakistan’s territorial integrity, sovereignty and standing in the international community, Mr Babar claimed.

The senator was of the view that as the country’s constitutional crisis was deepening, the regime was desperately seeking to divert public attention by focusing a barrage of accusations against the country’s “most popular leader.”

Mr Babar also denied reports that Ms Bhutto had initiated reconciliation with Gen Musharraf, offering him a safe exit and a safe return for herself. “Each contact was initiated at the behest of the regime to which the PPP responded,” he asserted.

However, he said, it seemed that certain elements with links to hardliners were determined to thwart any understanding between the democratic forces, represented by the ARD, and the regime because of their own nefarious designs.”

He maintained that the recent attempts at filing a treason case against Ms Bhutto were to put on defensive those elements within the regime which believed that a confrontation between the PPP and the military-led regime in Islamabad would further deepen political instability in the country.