05 July 2004	Monday	16 Jamadi-ul-Awwal 1425

LAHORE, July 4: A PPP leader has welcomed the statement of Prime Minister Chaudhry Shujaat Husain that top leaders should be held accountable while they are still in office.

Speaking to reporters here on Sunday, PPP leader Munir Ahmed Khan said that in the light of his own words, the prime minister should ensure that inquiries pending against a former president nor a government ally, several federal ministers and officials were taken to their logical conclusion.

He said that a reference was also pending against the prime minister. The PPP leader reminded Chaudhry Shujaat that as interior minister he had said that the drug case against Mr Asif Ali Zardari was baseless.

He said, now in the light of his own observation, the prime minister should order withdrawal of the case and set Asif Zardari free. Otherwise, he said, it would be construed that he was a powerless chief executive.

The PPP leader also demanded the winding up of the NAB courts, saying that being under the administrative control of a serving general, they could not be expected to do justice.