LAHORE, Nov 1: Former prime minister and People’s Party leader Benazir Bhutto has reiterated her support to women’s representation in assemblies and the joint electorate introduced through the Legal Framework Order.

In an e-mail Dawn Dialogue interview from London, she said where other LFO measures were concerned, the military regime was yet to seek her party’s help. “They expect elected political representatives to behave like junior officers who jump to attention under threat of court martial.

“Politics is about give and take and creating a consensus. I have still to see the rulers learn this art”, she said.

Ms Bhutto sidelined as hypothetical a question about the possibility of the country going to the polls next year, as recently forecast by her jailed husband Asif Ali Zardari.

Ms Bhutto did not come up with a clear answer to a question about whether she had forgiven her former political adversary Mian Nawaz Sharif for implicating her in what she calls politically motivated cases.

The twice elected former prime minister said it was the late Nawabzada Nasrullah Khan who had brought the PML-N close to the PPP after Mr Sharif’s party broke away from the establishment.

However, she was clear-cut in rejecting any cooperation with the PML-Q, saying it was the “establishment’s baby”.

Despite previous statements indicating her eagerness to return home, in her interview Ms Bhutto did not say when she would come to Pakistan. “Whether I stay abroad or return is neither here nor there”.