PESHAWAR, Nov 4: Politicians at a seminar here on Tuesday blamed both the military and the judiciary for injustices and human rights violations since the country’s inception.

The seminar was organized by the NWFP Pakistan People’s Party to denounce the detention of Asif Ali Zardari, spouse of the PPP chairperson, Benazir Bhutto, here at the Peshawar Press Club.

The PPP’s provincial president, Khwaja Mohammad Khan Hoti, accused the then Chief Justice of Pakistan, Justice Mohammad Munir, of committing what he termed the first sin for having legitimized the dismissal of the Constituent Assembly, opening the door for “adventurists to stage coups” in Pakistan.

Successive military dictators, whom Mr Hoti said had destroyed the country’s democratic fabric, were supported by the judiciary.

The accountability bureau, he said, was more and more like a torture cell against political opponents, adding that it was being used a centre to grill politicians, forcing them to change their loyalties. A majority of the people, who, he said, were ‘wanted’ by the National Accountability Bureau for their opposition to the imposition of military rule, were members of the federal cabinet.

He said that the PPP’s founding chairman Zulfikar Ali Bhutto had been killed, because of his opposition to the generals’ involvement in the country’s politics. Asif Ali Zardari, Mr Hoti said, had completed seven years of incarceration on Nov 4 without any charge being proved against him.

Senior vice-president of the Pakistan Bar Council Qazi Mohammad Anwar said that Mr Zardari was being held hostage by rulers because of his refusal to strike a deal with them. Asif Zardari’s continuous detention, he said, was in violation of the Article 14 of the Constitution, which guaranteed the dignity of the country’s citizens.

Qazi Anwar said: “Rulers appreciate the spineless, the corrupt, the inept and the mediocre in the government and on the superior courts.”

He went so far as saying that the military had no role in the creation of the country as they had served the English Crown till Aug 13, 1947.

He said that the people knew who was behind political assassinations and sectarian killings across the country.

A former provincial chief of the PPP, Barrister Masood Kausar, while criticizing the prolonged detention of Mr Zardari, said: “When nations are deprived of their freedom, they do become slaves. The people end up with the same.”

Barrister Kausar said that institutions were meant to guide individuals, but here a lone man had taken over the institution of the army, which, he added, was a bad omen for the country.