Asif rules out deal with govt

Published December 21, 2001

NOWSHERA, Dec 20: Dispelling the impression of any secret deal between his party and the government, Asif Ali Zardari said on Thursday that by keeping him behind bars the government had been violating orders of superior courts.

Mr Asif, brought to the Attock Fort in connection with an Ehtesab reference pending before the accountability court, told party workers that he could no longer be kept in detention and soon he would be among them.

Expressing confidence in judiciary, the former senator said despite the fact that he had been allowed bail in all the cases, NAB had issued orders asking the authorities not to release him. He added that this attitude of the government had proved that PPP had not been engaged in any behind-the-curtain talks with rulers.

Mr Asif said: “After my release the party will be organized on scientific lines and young leadership will be encouraged to come forward.”

All the cases against him, he added, were fabricated. The PPP leader said that now even Gen Musharraf had conceded that there were only two major political parties in the country — the PPP and the PML.

Mr Asif described the foreign policy as a complete failure and said that Pakistan was now isolated on international level. He was of the view that after the Taliban’s defeat the US had been using India for pressuring Pakistan.

He claimed that in the presence of a democratic government in the country the Indian government would never dare act in a manner in which it had been acting now.

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