HYDERABAD, Nov 24: Central and provincial leaders of Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) at a seminar here on Saturday rejected any underhand deal with the rulers for the release of Asif Ali Zardari but said that their party was ready to cooperate with the government to provide relief to masses.

In their separate speeches they also said that the PPP had been opposing fundamentalism in the country since 1967 and was backing present government’s Afghanistan policy only because it was in consonance with the party policy and ideology.

The seminar was organized by a member PPP Sindh council, Maula Bux Chandio, here at a local hotel on the topic of “five- year imprisonment of Asif Ali Zardari - accountability or revenge”.

Speaking on the occasion, PPP Sindh president Nisar Ahmed Khuhro said, “we are talking about transparency in the judicial process in a country where the law of might is right has always ruled supreme”.

He added that the PPP workers had for the time being forgotten that the present government was repressive as it was least concerned about ensuring fair trial and justice to political prisoners.

He claimed that the government had excluded bureaucrats, capitalists and defaulters from its list of accountability and added that the PPP did not expect justice the way the accountability process was being conducted.

He recalled that the present government ousted the previous one on the ground that the former prime minister had planned to hijack a plane, imperilling the lives of 200 passengers on board. He added that Mr Nawaz Sharif was sentenced to life imprisonment, to be confirmed by Sindh High Court.

“However one fine morning we came to know that the convict has been released though he did not apply for clemency and was surprised to learn that he is being released”, Khuhro said.

Till date the letter purported to have been written by Nawaz Sharif to the government seeking clemency was not made public, he said.

About the continuous detention of former senator Asif Ali Zardari, he said while others were being released Zardari was being implicated in other cases though the charges were yet to be substantiated.

Central information secretary of the PPP, Taj Haider said that efforts should be made for exposing the people who had masterminded the assassination of Mir Murtaza Bhutto which led to the destabilization and ouster of PPP government in 1996.

He added that the Murtaza Bhutto was murdered to put Zardari in jail and destabilize PPP government.

He asserted that those who had fired the shots were living abroad as they were being protected by some quarter whereas charges were cooked up against Zardari.

He said that the government was talking about arresting corrupt people but the “like-minded” bank defaulters were being patronized by it.

He said that Gen Pervez Musharraf would become the president of the country at gunpoint after general elections while people would struggle to bring Benazir Bhutto to the country as its prime minister.

He said that hair of PPP leaders had turned grey in this prolonged struggle and at this stage they did not want to have any black spot on their character by indulging in any kind of deal.

Mr Haider paid tributes to Asif Zardari for facing trial and tribulations for five years with courage and confidence.

Describing imprisonment of Zardari as vengeance general secretary of PPP Sindh, Rashid Rabbani said that he was being kept in prison to prevent Benazir Bhutto from playing her role in restoring political process in the country.

He said that his party did not believe in any deal and added that the present system was bound to be changed.

He said that the country, constitution and people needed Ms Benazir Bhutto.

Former MNA Syed Khursheed Ahmed Shah said, “we have seen a former prime minister, convicted by the court, being released while the other is still being tried in various cases”.

He also repeated that his party did not believe in any conspiracy or under deal though it always opted for negotiations.

He said that the PPP was pursing its own policy of anti-fundamentalism and not supporting the government’s Afghan policy.

He charged that continuous detention of Asif Zardari negated the supremacy of law and regretted that the rulers’ accountability ignored Chaudhry Shujaat who was involved in cooperative scandal, Humayun Akhtar, Ghous Ali Shah, Maqbool Sheikh and many other corrupt leaders, who had been let-off.

Former federal law minister, Prof N.D. Khan said that in the wake of turmoil in Afghanistan our western frontiers had also become vulnerable and now we had to pay attention on this side as well.

PPP Hyderabad division president, Qazi Asad Abid said that although the government has given different signals to PPP leaders but the same had been turned down.

Maula Bux Chandio, Qurban Ali Chohan, Lala Rehman Samoon, and Jami Chandio also spoke in the seminar.