Zardari accuses Pak intelligence agencies of discrediting Benazir

Washington, Jan 5 (UNI) Pakistan People's Party (PPP) Co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari has accused the country's intelligence agencies of discrediting his wife, former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, targeting him and several of her friends.

''I was called 'Mr Ten Per cent' by their hired guns in public relations, and the names of her friends abroad were besmirched with ridiculous charges that they headed the non-existent ''Indo-Zionist'' lobby,'' he wrote in an article 'The Duty My Wife Left Us,' published in today's Washington Post.

He wrote this campaign of character assassination was possibly the first institutional application of the politics of personal destruction.

''Benazir was the target, and me and her friends were the instruments,'' he added.

The purpose was to weaken the case for a democratic government.

It is perhaps easier to block the path of democracy by discrediting democratic politicians, he wrote.

Mr Zardari, a former senator, however, added it was also time to look forward.

He wrote, ''The torch of leadership in the PPP has been passed to a new generation, to our son, Bilawal Bhutto Zardari. I will work with him, support him and protect him to the extent possible in the trying times ahead.

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