Bhutto's Pakistan People's Party (PPP), however, accused the Nawaz Sharif Government of attempting to murder Zardari and disputed claims by the authorities that he tried to commit suicide.

A PPP spokesman said over phone from Karachi that Zardari was tortured during interrogation by police overnight in an attempt to implicate him in a double murder case and that the PPP would file an FIR against Sharif for trying to kill a sitting member of parliament, PTI adds.

The spokesman dismissed a police statement earlier in the day that Zardari had tried to commit suicide by slashing his neck with broken glass during interrogation and had sustained injuries in his neck and wrists.

"Zardari can never do that. He has been in jail for more than two years now and he had repeatedly said that he will fight for his rights till thelast," the spokesman said.

Nisar Khuro, a provincial PPP leader, said the party was unaware of Zardari's condition. "If Zardari is injured it must have been because of police torture," Khuro said.

Bhutto's spokesman said no one had been allowed to see Zardari since his lawyer met him on Monday night. The spokesman said Zardari's lawyer had confirmed injury marks on different parts of his body. He informed the Sindh High Court on Monday ordered Zardari to be immediately shifted to a hospital because of his deteriorating health. "They are keeping Zardari in illegal detention and we believe that they (police) have attempted to kill him or have tortured him," he said.

"He has been rushed to some unknown hospital and a case of attempted suicide has been registered against him by the police," said Munnawar Suhrawardy, PPP's Information Secretary. There was no immediate information about the condition of Zardari.

"We know that he would never attempt to commit suicide... he was in good spirits," saidSuhrawardy. In Pakistan it is a criminal offence to attempt suicide.

Zardari who has been in jail on corruption charges since his wife's government was dismissed in 1996 on corruption charges, was being interrogated by Pakistan's Crime Investigation Agency in Karachi. He was shifted to the police station for interrogation on Sunday because he was the prime suspect in the murder of a retired Justice Nizam Ahmed and his son in mid-1996. Zardari was connected to the killing of Ahmed by a co-accused.

Zardari also faces another charge of murder in connection with the 1996 killing of Bhutto's estranged brother Murtaza Bhutto. He has been convicted, along with Bhutto, on a charge of corruption, sentenced to five years in jail and fined $8.6 million.

Bhutto left the country for the United Arab Emirates days before the Lahore court convicted her of receiving kickbacks in a deal involving a Swiss firm and has put off plans of an immediate return fearing that the authorities will harm her if she does.

She hasappealed her five year-jail sentence but the Supreme Court has said that it will not hear the appeal until she returns to Pakistan and surrenders.