05 November 2004	Friday	21 Ramazan 1425

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PESHAWAR, Nov 4: The Pakistan People's Party has appealed to the Chief Justice of Pakistan to take suo motu notice of what it calls 'illegal' incarceration of Asif Ali Zardari, who has undergone nine years of imprisonment.

Talking to Dawn, PPP senior vice-president Syed Qamar Abbas condemned the 'unwarranted' detention of Mr Zardari and appealed to the CJ to order his immediate release. "He has completed more than a life term in jail since the dismissal of the PPP government in 1995."

He requested human rights groups to raise voice against the detention of Mr Zardari "who has braved state repression".

He alleged that the National Accountability Bureau was being used as a political tool against democratic forces opposed to military dictators. The NAB had failed to prove and maintain its credibility as an independent body, he added.

Mr Abbas said the military government had failed to prove a single case against Mr Zardari, who had been implicated in 'cooked-up' cases of murder and corruption. The shuttling of Mr Zardari between Islamabad and Karachi by the government was merely a pretext to hoodwink the nation, he added.

Even such writers and columnists, who were on the government's payroll and used to dub him Mr 10 per cent, were lending support to calls for his early release, said Mr Abbas.

He said a former interior minister had confessed that the authorities had registered a fake drugs case against Mr Zardari in Lahore. He said Mr Zardari had been detained on political grounds.