Saturday, January 28 2006 19:47 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Islamabad: Asking the Interpol not to become an instrument in the Pakistan Government's 'victimisation campaign' against Benazir Bhutto, her Pakistan People's Party(PPP) has demanded the withdrawal of Red Notices issued against the former premier and her husband.

In a letter to Interpol Secretary General Ronald Kenneth Noble, counsel for Bhutto and Zardari, Senator Farooq H Naek, said the cases were 'cooked up' against Bhutto after her government was dismissed in 1996.

"In a bid to persecute and politically victimize Bhutto and Zardari, after the dismissal of her government in 1996, under the cover of so called accountability, a number of false and cooked up Accountability References were filed before hostile and partial judges to ensure the conviction of them at all costs under a specially tailored law," the letter said.

Naek asked Noble not to become a vehicle in the regime's campaign against the Bhuttos.

The sole purpose of the Ehtesab Act, 1997, which was later replaced by National Accountability Bureau Ordinance (NAB) Ordinance 1999, he alleged, was to persecute, pressurize, blackmail, harass and defame the reputation of opposition politicians and coerce them to succumb to the 'illegal designs and wishes of the despotic regime.'

On the Government's charge that Bhutto was evading the court, Naek said, "Bhutto had left Pakistan with the permission of the court and her personal attendance was dispensed with in the References filed by former Ehtesab Bureau by the Lahore High Court, Lahore in the writ petition filed by Bhutto".