Premature to say Musharraf misappropriated US aid to Pak Army: Zardari

Islamabad, Aug 12 : Pakistan People's Party co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari has said that it would be premature to say that President Pervez Musharraf might have misappropriated the US aid given to Pakistan in war against terror.

The PPP co-chairman told Geo News that that his statement in this regard was stated out of context by a British newspaper.

He further said that the Pakistan Army and the Inter Services Intelligence (ISI) are not involved in politics.

As regards Dr. Aafia Siddiqui's case, Zardari said that her trial is an acid test of the US judicial system.

Zardari said that new Pakistan President would abolish Article 58-2(b).

Earlier, Zardari told Sunday Times in an interview that "our grand old Musharraf has not been passing on all the 1 billion dollar a year that the Americans have been giving for the armed forces."

He said the army has been getting 250-300million dollars reimbursement for what they do.

"But where's the rest? He added: They claim it's been going in budget support but that's not the answer. We're talking about 700 dollars million a year missing. The rest has been taken by 'Mush' for some scheme or other and we've got to find it."

Zardari also detailed for the first time Musharraf's attempts to sabotage his government which, he said, forced him to take the drastic step of demanding his impeachment.

Zardari claimed the American aid might have gone to fund rogue members of the military intelligence, the ISI, who were last week accused by Washington of assisting Taleban and other groups rather than rooting them out.

ANI