ISLAMABAD, Jan 16: Pakistan People’s Party co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari has condemned the arrest of ‘hundreds’ of PPP workers and filing of ‘false cases’ against ‘tens and thousands’ of its supporters and demanded an immediate withdrawal of the cases and release of all the detained workers.

The PPP claims that hundreds of its workers have been arrested and FIRs against 15,000 supporters have been registered in the aftermath of Benazir Bhutto’s assassination.

Mr Zardari said in a statement issued by the party’s media office here on Wednesday that: “The farce of registering cases against ‘unknowns’ has made a mockery of the law and claims of free and fair elections”.

Mr Zardari said that cases had been registered against even those persons who were sick and admitted to hospitals during the days of violence. He cited the example of Syed Fayyaz Shah, a PPP candidate for a provincial assembly seat had been in hospital after a car accident on Dec 26, but he was nominated in an FIR. Some workers, he alleged, had been nominated in different cases occurring at different places at the same time in the province.

Mr Zardari urged the Chief Election Commissioner to look into the matter because, he said, such moves amounted to pre-poll rigging.