PESHAWAR, July 26: The Pakistan People's Party has criticized the prolonged and illegal detention of Asif Ali Zardari, husband of PPP Chairperson Benazir Bhutto, and demanded his unconditional and early release.
Speaking at a big public meeting organised by the provincial chapter of the PPP here at the historic Chowk Yadgar on Monday, PPP Secretary-General Jehangir Badr said Mr Zardari had become a symbol of steadfastness and an icon of bravery in politics. Despite torturing him the present rulers had failed to break him, he observed.
The entire venue was decorated with tri-coloured PPP flags, banners and posters inscribed with the slogans, demanding release of Mr Zardari. The rally was depicting a carnival mood as the PPP workers had turned the political rally into a cultural show.
Scores of small PPP processions having their own drumming groups started converging to the venue after 5.00pm. The meeting organizers also released dozens of pigeons and bunches of colourful balloons, flying with banners printed with Mr Zardari and his family's images.
PPP women activists also brought a separate procession which arrived at the venue after marching onto nearby lanes. The nearby residential and commercial buildings were covered with banners and party flags.
Mukhtar Ahmed Awan, a former PPP labour minister from Multan, Qazi Sultan Mehmood from Rawalpindi, Siraj Durrani from Sindh and MNA Azra Zardari, sister of Mr Zardari, also attended the meeting. PPP MPAs in the NWFP assembly and district presidents were present on the occasion. Rahimdad Khan presided over the political gathering.
Sardar Ali Khan, a former party MNA from Nowshera, read out a message by Mr Zardari, which the letter sent from the prison and hoped that he would be soon among the masses.
Mr Zardari, through his message, vowed that he would continue his political struggle like the late Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, who laid his life but did not make a deal with the usurpers.
"I belong to a land where Mohammad bin Qasim raised the voice of Islam and truth. I will not give in to the wishes of tyrants. I will make a pride for my motherland," the message reads.
PPP Parliamentarians chief Makhdoom Amin Fahim could not make his presence at the meeting, though he was the key speaker. Continuing his fiery speech, Mr Badr said PPP was the only political party which had kept alive the political and democratic values by making innumerous sacrifices.
The party was proud of brave people like Mr Zardari, who had rendered unmatchable and historic sacrifices for the PPP and kept its flag high during odd times, Mr Badr said.
Mr Ghulam Abbas from Lahore said the successive military regimes had tried to destroy the PPP by creating so-called groups in its body, but the PPP had survived their every negative move and foiled conspiracies against it.
The different rulers had also employed third degree method to marginalise it and root it out from the masses, but the party was still alive in the masses and playing its political role in the country, he added.
PPP Secretary-General Raja Ashraf Pervez called upon the rulers to respect the human rights and release Mr Zardari, whose basic human rights were denied to him for a long period. He said Pakistan was a signatory to the UN's human rights charter, but the successive governments had been violating the rights of their citizens, he added.
