October 4, 2002	Friday	Rajab 26, 1423

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ATTOCK, Oct 3: The People’s Party Parliamentarians (PPP) leader and former senator Asif Ali Zardari criticized the government’s economic policy, saying the poverty graph in the country increased from 22 per cent to above 48 per cent during last three years.

Talking to reporters at the accountability court, Attock Fort, on Thursday, he said the military regime’s tall claims about the foreign reserves were baseless and meant to befool the nation.

He claimed that in the forthcoming elections, the PPP would win over 150 seats in National Assembly and Makhdoom Amin Fahim was to be the next prime minister. He further claimed that his party would form governments in Sindh, Punjab and the NWFP, however, in Balochistan, it was likely to form a coalition setup with other political parties.

Mr Zardari said Benazir Bhutto could be elected member of Parliament on the special women seats of National Assembly. He said the PPP was aware of the pre-poll rigging, but was participating in the elections with an enthusiasm so that the government could not succeed in its plan.

Answering a question about some changes being made in the oath for the office of prime minister and members of Parliament to protect the Legal Frame Work, he said such alterations would be unjustified and not in favour of the Parliament.

The former senator said almost all political parties had rejected the amendments made through the LFO and the future parliamentarian would never take such kind of oath.

To another question, he said if electricity agreement was not made with foreign companies, the entire nation would have been living in darkness because the water level in the rivers was decreasing.