ISLAMABAD, March 15: Former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto has asked the government to free courts of the military control. Ms Bhutto's call came in reaction to reports that military officers had denied entry of a People's Party Parliamentarian's Punjab Assembly member to the accountability court which is trying her husband.

"A fair trial is an open trial", the PPP chairperson said, adding "however, when military officers are deputed to keep even family members away from proceedings, one can only imagine the pressure the presiding officer must be under".

Ms Bhutto called upon the Supreme Court chief justice and the Bar associations to take notice of the violation of due process. She condemned the post-1996 law establishing special NAB courts with "handpicked judges who were often retired judges or those due for promotion. This created a conflict of interest which prevented justice from freely operating".

MPA Farzana Raja stated that she was stopped from attending court proceedings against her under trial husband Pir Mukarramul Haq when she went to the NAB court in Rawalpindi on March 13.

The policemen at the court gates refused entry to her claiming instructions came from two army officers controlling the court premises, namely Col Azhar and Maj Amir.

The policemen said they would be suspended from service if they allowed her entry. Pir Mukarram was arrested on June 21, 2003 in corruption charges. Ms Raja was then asked to defect to secure the release of her husband. She refused and consequently her husband has not been freed.

According to Ms Raja when she sought to contact the higher ups she was told to see them 'privately'. Maj Amir asked her to come to his office. The MPA refused to see the army officer in his office saying that it was her basic right to meet her husband and she had every right under the law to attend proceedings relating to her husband.

In a statement on Monday Ms Bhutto said the incident demonstrated yet again the political victimization unleashed under the NAB. She called for the repeal of the NAB law and the enactment of transparent laws in accordance with due process.

Ms Bhutto said the denial of open trial and stopping a parliamentarian from attending her husband's trial was nothing short of a stigma on the name of the present regime.

While demanding a thorough probe into the incident and punishment to those who have transgressed the law, the PPP chairperson called for the NAB courts to be freed of the military's pressure and allowed to function independently.