The Pakistan government has approached the Interpol to get self-exiled former prime minister Benazir Bhutto and her spouse Asif Ali Zardari arrested as at least 10 cases of alleged corruption against them were pending before the courts, a media report said in Islamabad Monday.
The arrests of Bhutto and Zardari was likely to take place any time as Pakistan approached Interpol to issue red corner notices and warrants against them, Pakistan daily The News reported.
There was no official confirmation of the report.
The newspaper said Pakistani authorities have informed Interpol at its headquarters in Lyon, France, that as many as 10 cases were still pending for trial in accountability courts against the former prime minister and her spouse, which included a case of acquiring assets beyond ostensible means against Benazir Bhutto's mother Nusrat Bhutto.
Zardari has been released on bail in 2004 after five years of imprisonment.
He is currently in New York convalescing from a heart surgery. Bhutto is reportedly with him.
While the daily said that the government's move to approach the Interpol was aimed at dispelling an impression that a deal was in the offing with Bhutto, the Pakistan Peoples Party headed by her said the report was part of "pressure tactics" to win her support as the political power base of Musharraf was "shrinking" due to his reliance on the "waning" ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Q.
PPP spokesman Faratullah Babar said the newspaper only quoted authoritative sources, not any specific official, which according to him was an attempt to pressurise Bhutto to give in.
"It is a part of a disinformation campaign to put pressure on her as she consistently resisted it," he told PTI.
While asserting that there was no indication that Interpol has begun to act on any such report, he claimed the government decided to "leak" the story instead of officially owning it.
He also said the report was timed to coincide with Bhutto's visit to United States, which also coincides with the visit of Pakistani Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz.
The reports of government approaching Interpol came in the midst of speculation about back-channel talks between emissaries of Musharraf and Bhutto to work out a political deal to win the support of her party.
According to PPP sources, Musharraf wanted Bhutto to permit her party to support him and join the government after the 2007 polls, but insist that the former prime minster should continue to stay outside.
Bhutto, on the contrary, wants the government to scrap all cases against her, which she alleges were "foisted" on her and also remove clauses in the rules which barred her to contest polls, the sources claimed.
She reportedly want to become the chairperson of Senate, which was equivalent to the vice president, according to the sources.