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Benazir asks Clinton to save husband's life

Former Pakistan premier Benazir Bhutto today appealed to United States President Bill Clinton to protect her jailed husband, whom she said the Nawaz Sharief government was trying to kill.

In a letter to Clinton, Bhutto also complained of widespread human rights abuses by Prime Minister Nawaz Sharief accusing him of targeting the press, judiciary and her party supporters.

She appealed to Clinton to spearhead an international campaign ''against these gross violations of basic and fundamental human rights, and dispatch immediately your own investigative and medical teams.''

These teams, Bhutto said, also should investigate the condition of her husband, Asif Ali Zardari, who the police said attempted suicide earlier this week.

Zardari had said he had been tortured and the attempted suicide report was fabricated by the authorities.

Yesterday, Zardari was admitted to a hospital after he cut his tongue, the police claimed.

Zardari, who was investment minister in his wife's government, has been in jail since Bhutto was dismissed from power in 1996. He faces two charges of murder, including the 1996 shooting of of Bhutto's estranged brother, Murtaza.

He also faces several charges of corruption and abuse of power as does Bhutto.

Last month a special court convicted both Zardari and Bhutto of corruption, sentenced them to five years in jail and fined them 8.6 million dollars.

Bhutto, who was said to be in London, has refused to return to Pakistan unless she is guaranteed that she won't be arrested.

Yesterday, Bhutto's party workers in southern Karachi displayed blood-stained clothes. They said the clothes belonged to Zardari and that the blood was the result of torture.

''We have good reason to believe that Zardari's life continues to be in imminent danger,'' Bhutto said in her letter to Clinton.

She also asked for an investigation to be launched by the US embassy in Pakistan to ''determine the state of his health and safety.''

Next week, Bhutto is to be in Washington to make personal appeals on behalf of her husband and to lobby for international condemnation of the Sharief government.

The Sharief government has dismissed Bhutto's accusations and said she should return to Pakistan.

UNI

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