ISLAMABAD, Jan 24: Leaders of the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) on Tuesday condemned the government for, what they said, trying to abuse the process of Interpol to settle political scores with party chairperson Benazir Bhutto and her husband Asif Zardari.

Speaking at a press conference at the party secretariat, Makhdoom Amin Fahim, Raja Pervez Ashraf, Farooq Naek, Babar Awan, Farhatullah Babar, Enver Baig, Nayyar Bokhari and Safdar Abbasi said the rulers had intensified the character assassination campaign against Ms Bhutto after the party announced that she would return to the country in 2006.

Mr Fahim said there were reports that the government was approaching Interpol for issuance of red warrants for the arrest of Ms Bhutto and Mr Zardari. He said under the rules, Interpol could only be moved against convicted criminals, whereas all cases registered against Ms Bhutto and her husband were politically-motivated. Moreover, he said, Ms Bhutto had gone abroad with the permission of the court.

He said through such reports the government wanted to give an impression that the PPP chairperson was an absconder. He said Mr Zardari had also spent eight years in jail and he was also released on bail by the court. He said cases against Ms Bhutto had been pending with many courts but she had not been convicted in any of them. He said the government and its agencies were using these tactics only to misguide the people.

The lawyer of the PPP chairperson and her husband, Senator Farooq Naek, said Interpol could only be approached for the arrest of fugitives or those who had escaped a country after breaking jail. He said Ms Bhutto had been appearing in courts and she was not avoiding it. He said everyone knew that Ms Bhutto lived in Dubai while Mr Zardari was in New York and they were not hiding.

Mr Naek said it was strange that on the one hand the government did not allow PML-N president Shahbaz Sharif to return to the country despite the fact that he had been declared absconder by a court, and on the other, the government was projecting that it was approaching Interpol for the arrest of Ms Bhutto and Mr Zardari.

Another lawyer and PPP leader Babar Awan said a total of seven cases were registered against Ms Bhutto and Mr Zardari and they had been acquitted in all of them. He said never ever in the world history, Interpol has been moved to harass politicians.

MNA Naheed Khan, president PPP Islamabad (women’s wing) Nargis Faiz Malik, Agha Riazul Islam, Ibne Rizvi and Nazir Dhoki were also present on the occasion.