NAWABSHAH, Dec 19: Former premier and the Pakistan People’s Party chairperson Benazir Bhutto on Wednesday raised questions on the escape from police custody of Rashid Rauf, a British national of Pakistani origin, who faced charges of planning to blow up trans-Atlantic jetliners.

She said at a crowded public meeting at Nawabshah Stadium that when her husband was facing politically-motivated corruption cases he used to be taken to court and back in an armoured personnel carrier amid tight security and many a time his trial was held in jail.

But (the security of) a man facing serious charges was so slack that he could easily make good his escape after appearing in court, she said.

Benazir asked the officials of military, intelligence agencies and police not to get involved in rigging elections because no political orphan would be able to save them this time.

She said that they kept asking people to forget Benazir and that she would not return. She went to Nawaz Sharif during exile and asked him to get united for the restoration of democracy.

She said that the political orphans kept asking Musharraf not to doff uniform and extend the tenure of assemblies but Musharraf kept his word with PPP by shedding uniform and lifting emergency.

She said that PPP had never deposed any chief justice but Gen Zia and Gen Musharraf did. When Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry was sacked, PPP workers played a frontline role for his restoration as they were sure he would give a decision against dual office but unfortunately he did not do so probably due to some pressure, she observed.

She said that Gen Zia created Mujahideen and received money from the USA to fight against Russia. The same Mujahideen were later converted into Al Qaeda and Taliban and now they were asking for money to kill them, she said. People like Nek Mohammad and Ghazi were brought up and nurtured and then used to terrify people and then got killed, she added.

Quoting Transparency International reports on corruption, she said that no civilian government was as corrupt as military governments of Pakistan.

She said that Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto and Mir Murtaza were martyred, Asif Zardari was jailed under fake cases and she was defamed through a smear campaign to break up the party.

She said that it was the people power, which forced the general to let her return. The rulers got so afraid of PPP’s popularity that they planned to do away with its entire leadership through bomb blast, she said.

She claimed that not a single employee or worker was sacked during PPP’s tenures, neither was any IRO imposed on the business community.