ISLAMABAD: Pakistan People’s Party on Saturday denied the latest media reports about President Asif Ali Zardari’s alleged involvement in the 1994 Agosta submarines kickback scandal.

Fauzia Wahab, Information Secretary of the PPP, in a statement described the publication of the report as a conspiracy to malign President Zardari. Ms Wahab specifically rejected the claim of a French news service that Mr Zardari had allegedly taken seven million euros as kickback in the submarine deal signed during the early 1990s.

She brushed aside the allegation that Mr Zardari had links with the killing of French engineers in Karachi in 2002, saying that during those days he was in jail and Benazir Bhutto was in exile.

She said it was a matter of record that the-then chairman of Ehtesab Bureau, Saifur Rahman, and vice-admiral Aziz Mirza had pressured the-then chief of the naval intelligence, Commodore Shahid Ashraf, to include the names of Ms Bhutto and Mr Zardari in the scandal involving kickbacks in the purchase of Agosta submarines.—Staff Reporter