December 12, 2007	Wednesday	Zilhaj 1, 1428

MARDAN, Dec 11: Former prime minister Benazir Bhutto has alleged that PML(Q) leaders are planning to use intelligence agencies, police and returning officers in the elections to secure the desired results.

“Was this country created for Muslims to kill Muslims, Pakhtuns to kill Pakhtuns, poor to kill the poor and the secret agencies to rig the elections to kill more people?” she asked.

Addressing an election rally at the residence of Khanzada Khan, the PPP candidate from the NA-9 constituency, at the Sheikh Maltoon Township here on Tuesday, Ms Bhutto said that PPP followed basic principles: Islam is our religion; democracy and economic equality are our politics and people are its (PPP’s) the only source of strength.

She announced that after coming to power the PPP would set up a university in Mardan and said that people should not be ruled by military dictators or clergy or be kept slaves by the fundamentalists.

The former prime minister said that after the dismissal of the Taliban government in Kabul, ‘terrorists’ sneaked into Pakistan’s tribal areas. The spill-over effects could now be felt in the settled districts of Tank, Charsadda, Kohat, Bannu and Dera Ismail Khan, she pointed out.

In Swat, she said, the situation deteriorated to the extent that a military operation had to be conducted.

She said that hanging of his uniform by Gen Pervez Musharraf, the announcement of general elections on Jan 8 and lifting of emergency rule on Dec 15 were the achievements of the people’s sacrifices.