Lahore, May 13 : Pakistan's cricketer-turned-politician Imran Khan has said that PPP Co-Chairman Asif Ali Zardari was scuttling the moves of restoration of deposed Supreme Court judges just to please the Americans who want to see their old time "war against terror" ally President Pervez Musharaf in power.

He said that Zardari's personal motive behind not restoring the Supreme Court judges was to keep the corruption cases worth billions of dollars lying pending against him, under the carpet.

"Zardari is playing a triple game of protecting American interests, Musharraf's power and getting away with corruption cases against him worth billions of dollars," The News quoted Khan as saying at an APDM (All Parties Democratic Movement) public rally outside the Lahore Press Club. APDM is an alliance of small time political parties that came into being before the February 18 polls, as a front against President Pervez Musharraf.

The APDM protestors parties held banners, placards and party flags, and raised slogans against Musharraf, Asif Zardari and MQM chief Altaf Hussain.

Addressing the rally, Imran alleged that Zardari was now part of the "new dangerous troika" that had taken over the reigns in Islamabad. "This troika consisted of Musharraf, the ugly jackal of London Altaf Hussain, and Zardari," he said, asking Zardari to explain how he managed to quash all corruption cases against him within hours through unconstitutional methods but at the same time refrained from taking what he called unconstitutional measures to restore jud
ges.

Imran said that time had proved that the APDM's election boycott decision was correct. The nation wanted to get rid of Musharraf on one hand and wished to see the return of deposed Chief Justice to the Supreme Court, he said. "But, after two and half months of general elections, Asif was finding excuses so that not only Musharraf could be saved but the restoration of CJ could also be stalled", he said.