ISLAMABAD: Deposed premier Benazir Bhutto has claimed that her husband Asif Ali Zardari, arrested on Wednesday in Karachi in a kidnaping and extortion case, was innocent.
Addressing a press conference at the Bilawal house, Bhutto asserted that the intimidatory and blackmailing tactics of the caretaker govt would not deter her from participating in the elections scheduled to be held on Oct 24.
Asif Zardari, 37, was arrested on charges of kidnaping and extortion of Rs 17 million from a London based expatriate Pakistani businessman, Murtaza Hussein Bokhari who was interested in setting up a charity hospital in Pakistan.
Bhutto termed his arrest as a criminal conspiracy against her, PPP and the country.
She said Asif Zardari, who was contesting against Ghulam Murtaza Jatoi, sonof the caretaker prime minister, Ghulam Mustafa Jatoi, from the Nawabsham constituency in Sindh, was being deliberately kept away from his election campaign.
The embattled former prime minister charged that the vituperative and slanderous campaign against her was aimed at lowering the image of the PPP in the eyes of the people.
“But we are not going to take it lying down. We will effectively counter such propaganda.”
Bhutto, who has voiced apprehension of being arrested around Oct 22, alleged that before the election process had commenced an agent of the govt had contacted her and advised her to refrain from participating in the poll. Bhutto said she was warned that otherwise she and her husband would be disqualified and put behind bars on various charges.
Article extracted from this publication >> October 19, 1990
