LAHORE, Nov 24: The PPP claimed on Monday that the money reimbursed to the government reportedly from the accounts of a Swiss company did not belong to Ms Benazir Bhutto or her husband, Asif Ali Zardari, and an official propaganda in this regard was baseless.

The party’s Lahore Coordination Committee which met at the residence of Khalid Kharal condemned what it called misleading statements and press releases being issued by the National Accountability Bureau attributing them to Swiss courts. The NAB, they alleged, was interested only in targeting the PPP chairperson and her spouse.

Calling for an end to the ongoing ‘vilification campaign’, the participants demanded early release of Mr Zardari.

Besides Kharal, Jehangir Badr, Qasim Zia, Mushtaq Awan, Fakhr Zaman, Altaf Qureshi, Misbahur Rehman, Munir Ahmad Khan and Azizur Rehman Chan also attended the meeting.

The meeting looked into the peace proposals given by the government in response to the ones made by India to normalize relations between the two nuclear rivals, and held that these views had been expressed by Ms Bhutto long ago. Her ideas had been vindicated as a result of the government’s peace proposals, it said.

The participants reviewed the Jamali government’s one-year performance in various fields and concluded that it had failed on all fronts.

“The failed foreign policy has created immense problems for the country. Bitter criticism of our foreign policy by Afghanistan has made the country’s western border insecure,” it said.

“Iran is developing relations with India. China, our northern neighbour, is uncomfortable (with us) and has criticized the inflow of literature from Pakistan inciting Chinese dissidents across the border.”

The meeting expressed concern over the expansion of the Punjab cabinet at a time when efforts should have been made to trim it to save money being spent on ministers. The largest ever cabinet, the participants said, would be a drain on national resources. They said instead of giving favours to a few people, the government should try to solve the problems of the common man.

They said it was regrettable that the LFO controversy remained unresolved during the past one year and parliament failed to elect a new president in accordance with the provisions of the constitution. They felt upset on the deteriorating law and order situation, and held that attacks on police stations manifested the electorate had no trust in the country’s system of justice.

The meeting condemned the arrest of various ARD leaders, including Javed Hashmi, and demanded their release without delay.

The participants reiterated their resolve to continue their struggle for the restoration of the 1973 Constitution and the supremacy of parliament.

They also condemned the incident of some people burning Herald’s senior assistant editor Amir Mir’s car a couple of days ago and demanded that the accused should be apprehended immediately.