Zardari vows to fight 'ancient' corruption charges

NEW YORK Describing the corruption charges against him as ancient, President Asif Ali Zardari has warned that forces, which were earlier allied with dictatorship, are now plotting to undo democracy and destabilise his government through judicial process.
I have spent almost 12 years in prison on trumped-up charges never proven, even by a court system manipulated by dictators and despots, he said in an article published by a major American newspaper on the second death anniversary of Benazir Bhutto. But like Benazir, I refuse to be intimidated.
My ministers, my party, leaders of other parties and thousands of civil servants across our nation will defend themselves in the courts if necessary, he said in an article published in a major American newspaper on the occasion of the second death anniversary of Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto.
So let the legal process move forward. Those of us who have fought for democracy against dictatorship for decades do not fear justice; we embrace it, Zardari wrote in The Wall Street Journal.
He said some forces, which were allied with dictatorship in the past, now hope that the judicial process could undo the will of a democratic electorate and destabilise the country. A litany of ancient charges of corruption - the modus operandi of past plots against every democratically elected government in Pakistan - now threatens to undermine the legitimacy of our government, he said in the op-ed piece: 'Democracy Is the Greatest Revenge.
Those of us who have been victims of dictatorship in the past believe in the rule of law and have faith in the judicial process, the President said as he paid tributes to Ms. Bhutto for the outstanding contribution she made during her two tenures as the an elected prime minister. Zardari said, Benazir Bhutto died confronting the forces of tyranny and terrorism, and Pakistan remains committed to the struggle that she led. He said in the death of Bhutto, women everywhere lost one of their greatest symbols of equality. And Islam, our great religion, lost its modern face.
Zardari listed the Pakistani militarys counterinsurgency success in the Swat and Malakand in the northwest. We have taken the fight against militants to other areas, including South Waziristan ... and we will win this war against them, he wrote.
The President, who government faces economic and other challenges wrote that the forces in Pakistan that have resisted change, modernity and democracy for 30 years still attempt to derail progress.
Those that will not stand with us against terrorism stand against us in the media. Zardari said that the nations economy, which had been left in shambles by the priorities of a decade of dictatorship, has been stabilised and revitalised. Food shortages have ended. Power shortages have diminished. We have adopted a national curriculum for the first time in history to challenge the spread of political madrassas.
Constitutional reforms are being finalised which will rid Pakistan of the undemocratic provisions inserted by military dictators that expanded the power of the presidency at the expense of Parliament... We have not come this far in our democratic struggle to fail, he wrote.