Supporters of the Pakistani opposition leader, Ms Benazir Bhutto, began a "hunger protest" outside a Swiss consulate yesterday after a Swiss judge pressed money-laundering charges against the former prime minister.
Ms Bhutto visited her jailed husband, Asif Ali Zardari, who faces a string of charges in Pakistan, including conspiracy to murder her brother, Murtaza.
More than 36 women from Bhutto's Pakistan Peoples' Party shouted anti-Swiss slogans outside the consulate in Karachi and brandished banners and placards. The protesters said the Swiss investigations, which began at the behest of Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif's government, were politically motivated.
"The Swiss government is being used by Pakistan. It is being fed forged documents of Bhutto's corruption," one party worker, Ms Munira Shakir, said.
The women said they would observe a nine-hour hunger strike each day outside the consulate until the Swiss authorities halted their investigations.
Last October Swiss authorities, acting on a request from Pakistani investigators, blocked Geneva bank accounts alleged to belong to Ms Bhutto, Mr Zardari and Ms Bhutto's mother, Nusrat.
Ms Bhutto, twice prime minister, is trying to regather allies to make a viable challenge to Mr Sharif. The Swiss judge, Mr Daniel Devaud, said earlier yesterday he had requested that Geneva and Islamabad arrange for the charges to be delivered to Ms Bhutto on his behalf.
Last month the Swiss authorities gave Pakistan documents purporting to show Zardari had taken a kickback from a $33 million (£24 million) sale of Polish tractors to the Pakistan government. The same judge charged Zardari with "using offshore companies in order to receive commissions".
The charges against Bhutto are partly based on allegations she paid for a $193,000 diamond necklace with money from an account used to launder money.
Mr Sharif's government has accused Bhutto of plundering state coffers and using her position to take bribes and kickbacks while she was in office. Ms Bhutto has denied all charges, and has said she would welcome the chance to clear her name but says neither she nor her husband has yet seen the evidence brought against them.