ISLAMABAD, April 20: Mr Asif Ali Zardari, the husband of former prime minister Benazir Bhutto, has refused, on medical grounds, to go to Switzerland to attend an inquiry being conducted by a Swiss magistrate into a case of money laundering.

Senator Farhatullah Babar, a PPP spokesman, told Dawn on Tuesday that Mr Zardari was not bound to appear before the Swiss magistrate in person according to the notice received by him (Mr Zardari).

PPP president Makhdoom Amin Fahim, on the other hand, told reporters after giving a briefing to foreign diplomats, that the Swiss ambassador had told him that the embassy was not aware of any notice issued to Mr Zardari because it had not been delivered through it.

Information Minister Sheikh Rashid, however, told a press conference that Mr Zardari had requested the president to release him to enable him to attend the hearing in Switzerland as a free person.

Prime Minister Mir Zafarullah Khan Jamali has, in the meanwhile, rejected a Pakistan People's Party (PPP) allegation that the government was trying to 'kidnap' its jailed leader on the pretext of sending him to Switzerland.

National Accountability Bureau chief Lt-Gen Muneer Hafiez, on the other hand, said that a Swiss magistrate could come to Pakistan to record the statement of Mr Zardari.

The prime minister told reporters after inaugurating the international conference on UN Convention Against Corruption that the government wanted to help Mr Zardari so that he could defend himself in the money laundering case being tried in a Swiss court.

Sheikh Rashid told newsmen that Mr Zardari had, for the first time, requested President Musharraf to release him. The information minister hinted that on the next hearing of the case the government might take Mr Zardari to Switzerland even if he was unwilling to go.

"This time he has managed to get a medical certificate from Sindh. On the next hearing, we will see what can be done." Asked if Pakistan had any agreement with Switzerland for the exchange of the accused, the minister said he (Asif Zardari) would be going as a prisoner."

Sheikh Rashid said that when a government official had gone to serve summons of the Swiss court to Mr Zardari, he expressed his inability to appear, saying he had been advised by doctors not to travel for eight weeks. The minister said that Mr Zardari had written on the paper that if Gen Musharraf released him he would appreciate it.

National Accountability Bureau (NAB) chairman Lt-Gen Muneer told reporters after attending the inauguration ceremony of the conference on corruption that although Mr Zardari had rejected the government's offer to proceed to Switzerland on medical grounds, there was a possibility of the Swiss magistrate coming here to record his statement.

The NAB chief said the Swiss magistrate had summoned Mr Zardari and PPP chairperson Benazir Bhutto in the court on April 22 as they had filed an appeal with the Swiss court against findings in which the investigating magistrate had proposed sentences for them in the SGS and Cotecna case.

He rejected PPP's claim that the magistrate had ordered reinvestigation of the case and summoned Mr Zardari to record his statement. The NAB chairman denied an allegation of the PPP that the government had not provided the Swiss court's notice to Mr Zardari and his lawyers despite the fact that it had been sent to the government of Pakistan in March 2004.

"In fact the summons was directly sent to the accused but he (Mr Zardari) did not inform the government that he had to proceed to Geneva to defend himself," he maintained. Lt-Gen Hafiez hoped that the Swiss magistrate could extend the date of hearing of Mr Zardari's case and if the jailed PPP leader consented to go, he would be taken to Switzerland in custody.

Meanwhile, Mr Zardari himself refused on Tuesday to proceed to Switzerland "due to his bad health and inability to travel. In a letter written to joint secretary of the Ministry of Interior, Akhtar Munir Marwat, Mr Zardari said he "wished to cooperate and participate" in the investigation being carried out by the investigating magistrate of Geneva, and clear his name and hoped that the proceedings would be deferred for a future date due to his "ill health and inability to travel on medical advice."

Mr Zardari said the notice, which was a translation of the original notice, and purported to be issued by Investigating Magistrate Christine Junod, did not bear the signature of the magistrate nor his stamp. Moreover, the PPP leader said, the notice had not been delivered through the Embassy of Switzerland in Islamabad.

The PPP leader said that he had been examined by a medical board in the first week of April, formed by the Sindh government on the orders of an additional sessions judge, and the board had recommended that he should have rest and treatment for eight weeks in the Dr Ziauddin Hospital, Karachi.

"The government, instead of helping me in my treatment, brought me to Islamabad and lodged me in Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (Pims) where all medical facilities recommended by the board are not available."

Mr Zardari said that under medical advice he could not travel far away from Pakistan. "I hope the proceedings would be deferred for a future date and I hope by that time, I will be a free man," he writes.

Mr Farhatullah Babar said the PPP was investigating why the notice was not delivered to Mr Zardari through proper channels. He said the party had all valid reasons to doubt the originality of the letter. Mr Babar said the military regime had wrongly given the impression that Mr Zardari was being allowed to attend investigative proceedings in Switzerland.

"This is not correct. The facts are that before Mr Zardari was approached by the military regime, the Pakistan Television announced that he would be allowed to leave to attend the Geneva proceedings, giving the impression that he would be freed," he said.

However, Mr Babar said the government officials later visited Mr Zardari and informed him that they were prepared to take him from the prison in Pakistan to the prison in Switzerland so that he could attend the Swiss magistrate's hearing.

He said any attempt to forcibly send Mr Zardari out of the country at this time would be a clear case of kidnapping. He said it was the responsibility of the government to inform the Swiss magistrate that Mr Zardari was unwell and unfit to travel. Meanwhile, government sources said Mr Zardari had agreed to be shifted to Karachi in the next 48 hours.