KARACHI, April 1: Leaders of Pakistan People’s Party have described the order for the confiscation of Asif Ali Zardari’s properties as the military regime’s attempt to hide its failure in proving any charge levelled against him over almost nine years of his incarceration.

In a press statement issued here on Saturday, they said that the NAB held Asif Ali Zardari hostage for over five years during which he developed many ailments that culminated at the heart stroke he suffered just a few months after being freed on court orders. “Zardari was dragged from one to another court for nine continuous years by the Establishment and heaped with many cases but none of the charges were proved against him. The regime was compelled to release him and courts allowed him to go abroad for treatment,” they added.

They said that the NAB had turned out to be a Gestapo-like outfit of the military regime which is on the rampage to damage the reputation of democratic and popular leadership of the country through mudslinging and baseless allegations just to elongate the dictatorial rule in the country.

They pointed out that the actual worth of NAB had become known to all when it withdrew its probe into the sugar crisis in which the people of Pakistan were robbed of billions of rupees within a few days.

The PPP leaders said no pressure tactics by the NAB or the military regime’s any other arm could stop them from continuing with struggle for the democratic rights of 150 million people of Pakistan who were held hostage by the Musharraf regime.