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Zardari wants to be “advisory figure”

London: Azif Ali Zardari, husband of former Pakistan Premier Benazir Bhutto, has said he will be an “advisory figure” like Congress president Sonia Gandhi, but without a seat in Parliament, if his Pakistan People’s Party is voted to power in the next month’s elections.

“If our party wins a majority in next month’s elections, I will not take a Cabinet post but will act like Sonia Gandhi, as an advisory figure without a seat in Parliament,” the PPP leader, who was made the party’s co-chairman following the assassination of his wife, said in an interview published in The Sunday Times on Sunday.

At the same time, he expressed his apprehensions about the election being held at all. “We don’t have any faith that there will be elections. They might make another huge incident. Anyone could be a target,” he said.

The elections which were earlier scheduled for January 8 were put off till February 18 following Benazir’s assassination and the ensuing violence. He said the elections must be conducted under a new, neutral caretaker government. Mr. Zardari said there “must be a restoration of full electronic and print press freedoms... and all political activists, lawyers and judges in detention must be released.” — PTI

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