16 July 2004	Friday	27 Jamadi-ul-Awwal 1425

PESHAWAR, July 15: The Pakistan People's Party has decided to launch a campaign for the release of Asif Ali Zardari, the husband of PPP chairperson Benazir Bhutto, who has been languishing in different prisons since November 6, 1996.

The PPP also decided at its meeting here on Thursday to hold a public meeting at Chowk Yadgar on July 26 for the unconditional release of Mr Zardari. The meeting, presided over by PPP divisional coordinator Zahir Ali Shah, also constituted an organising committee headed by former MNA Sardar Ali Khan to make the public meeting a success.

Zahir Ali Shah, Najmuddin Khan, Ayub Shah, Col (retd) Khizar Hayat, Khwaja Yawar Naseer and Behramand Tangi are members of the committee.

Speaking at the meeting, Najmuddin Khan criticized the government for what he called "misusing its accountability forums to depoliticize society and get loyalties of its political opponents changed."

He said the PML government had installed some of the corrupt politicians who had changed their loyalties as ministers. Mr Khan said that Prime Minister Chaudhary Shujaat Hussain knew full well the nature of all cases registered against Mr Zardari during the previous tenures of PML government.

He asked the prime minister to end political polarization by withdrawing "bogus cases" against political leaders, including Mr Zardari, unconditionally. He urged the PPP workers to mobilize people against the "illegal incarceration" of Mr Zardari, and bring them in large numbers to the public meeting.

He said the government had failed during its four-year tenure to prove even a single case against Mr Zardari. He said: "It is nothing but political vendetta. The rulers do not believe in democracy or the supremacy of the constitution and parliament," he added. Mr Shah advised all the PPP city units to hold workers meetings in their areas and make the July 26 meeting a success.