Zardari a Pakistani citizen, not American national, clarifies furious PPP

Islamabad, June 15(ANI): The Pakistan People's Party (PPP) has said that its leader and Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari is a citizen of Pakistan, and denied reports claiming that he was as an American national.

PPP Secretary Information Fauzia Wahab said that the PPP strongly condemned the news on a website- Noteable Names Database (NNDB), which claims to contain details of over 35,000 prominent world personalities and describes Zardari as a US civilian of Asian/Indian race.

She said that the aim of the news was to make President Zardari controversial and put the interests of Pakistan at stake.

Wahab also criticised a Pakistani newspaper for publishing the report on its front page without investigating the matter.

"If this website was looked at closely the journalist who filed the story would have known that on it the creator of Pakistan's nuclear programme Dr. Abdul Qadeer Khan had been called a spy," The News quoted Wahab, as saying.

"The website also gave other wrong information about President Zardari and the same reporter who quoted the website filed a misleading story last year about lack of trust between Sanam Bhutto and President Zardari," she added.

Apart from Zardari's family background and other details, the website also claimed that the Pakistan President suffers from diabetes and is a patient of depression.

Earlier, it was reported that if the information about Zardari is true, his presidential election could be challenged in a court of law for concealing his original nationality. (ANI)