‘Election as PPP head blow to Gen’

Buoyed by assertions of US Secretary of State Colin Powell that all Pakistani political parties be allowed to contest the October polls, for...

Buoyed by assertions of US Secretary of State Colin Powell that all Pakistani political parties be allowed to contest the October polls, former premier Benazir Bhutto today said her re-election as chairperson of Pakistan Peoples Party was a blow to the Musharraf government.

Thanking party workers for reposing faith in her in defiance of political orders preventing her from heading the party and barring her from contesting the October 10 general election, Bhutto said her unanimous election as PPP leader, despite the government’s efforts, was a rebuff to the Musharraf government.

Benazir made these remarks after she was formally declared unanimously elected by PPP’s election officials on Monday, party spokesman Fratullah Babar said here.

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Benazir’s husband, Asif Ali Zardari who is in prison for the past seven years, has been elected president of the party’s Nawabshah district unit.

Benazir was previously elected as chairperson for life. But she contested the party polls again following a new rule brought in by the Musharraf government that all the political parties aspiring to contest the general elections should hold internal polls.

Benazir’s comments followed Sunday’s statement by Powell that the US expected the Musharraf government to permit parties to contest the polls.

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