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If there is rigging, we’ll look at other options, says Zardari

— photo: AP/Pakistan People’s Party/HO

Asif Ali Zardari, husband of the slain Pakistan Opposition leader, Benazir Bhutto (left), with the former Prime Minister, Nawaz Sharif, after their meeting at Mr. Sharif’s residence in Raiwind near Lahore.

LAHORE: Pakistan People’s Party co-chairperson Asif Ali Zardari said on Saturday that his party was certain to win a free and fair election and warned that rigging could lead to more unrest in the country.

“We are not looking at the position of losing at the moment. We are hoping to win, and we are in the race to win,” Mr. Zardari said in an interview two days before the election.

“All the pollsters are predicting our victory, and collectively, we want to become part of the solution, and not the problem. But that depends on if there is no rigging day after,” he said.

If there was rigging, Mr. Zardari warned, the PPP would look at other options. “All options that are open to democratic political parties. For instance, to collectively start a struggle,” he said.

Benazir Bhutto’s widower, who took effective control of the PPP after anointing their son Bilawal Bhutto to succeed her to the party’s chair, met Pakistan Muslim League (N) leader Nawaz Sharif for the second time in a week on Saturday, giving rise to speculation that the two may form a coalition government after the election.

But Mr. Zardari said he was looking at not just the PML (N) as a possible partner in government, but “all the political forces” of the country.

“Today when we [he and Mr. Sharif] met, this is what we talked about, that we will work together, we will invite all the political forces of the country to work with us. We understand what the challenge before Pakistan is, and the answer is not to create chaos. Our effort will be to remain within the framework of democracy, take all our friends along and try to change the system,” he said.

Mr. Zardari said it was “the system” that should be held responsible for his wife’s assassination.

“My promise in this election has been that we will avenge BB’s martyrdom by changing the system,” he said.

Across the country, there was anger at the killing of Benazir, Mr. Zardari said.

“In Sindh, in Balochistan, in Kashmir, the Pakhtuns, Punjabis, in the Seraiki belt, all are angry at BB’s martyrdom. Every Pakistani is angry. And we have to take them with us. Pakistan People’s Party is the country’s biggest political force, and if it weakens, there will be elements who want to take advantage of it.”

He said it would be the effort of the PPP, with the help of a broad-based government, to run Pakistan as a true federation, “take along every participant, give provincial rights, and run the federation along with a loving hand, a giving hand.”

The PPP has been accused of not taking a strong position on the restoration of the judges who were ousted by Gen. Musharraf in his November 3 emergency. Mr. Zardari denied the PPP was dodging the issue.

“Only Parliament can do this, so we are saying ‘come to Parliament, let us have a parliamentary committee.’ And this committee can act only on the basis of a law. We cannot restore the judiciary just by raising slogan,” he said. “And it’s a larger issue. We also have to think about the judges who did not take oath under [the 2000] provisional constitutional order.”

Mr. Zardari said the PPP wanted “peaceful regional co-existence,” and suggested that Pakistan and India could “agree to disagree” on Kashmir, and work their relations around the issue.

“We can keep our position that there is a dispute, and this is a political position. India has a different position. So we can keep it there. And in spite of that we can have people-to-people contact, come and go, trade, and be neighbours,” the PPP leader said.

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