ISLAMABAD, Aug 31: Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) has rejected allegation of receiving $60 million as kickbacks levelled by Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid (PML-Q) Secretary-General and presidential candidate Mushahid Hussain Syed against PPP Co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari, and termed it a conspiracy against democracy.

Talking to media persons here, PPP leader Farzana Raja said such baseless accusations were part of a character assassination campaign against Mr Zardari. She said the allegation was being hurled by a person who had no public constituency. She said it was known to everybody how Mushahid became senator with the help of undemocratic forces. She said the PML-Q leader had been supporting dictatorship for the last three decades.

“The allegation of kickbacks against Mr Zardari and Benazir Bhutto with reference to a Swiss court case is a sheer lie,” she said, adding Mushahid Hussain was using tactics to destroy democratic institutions. She claimed that former president Pervez Musharraf and PML-N chief Nawaz Sharif had acknowledged that allegations brought against Mr Zardari were baseless and unfounded.