ISLAMABAD, Dec 9: British Foreign Secretary David Milliband called former prime minister Benazir Bhutto on Sunday.

According to a press release issued by the PPP media centre here, Ms Bhutto thanked the UK government for support to the people of Pakistan on the issues of Gen Pervez Musharraf’s retirement as army chief, the date for elections, the date for lifting the state of emergency and pressing for lifting curbs on the media.

She also welcomed the support of the United Kingdom and the international community for free and fair elections in Pakistan.

Ms Bhutto expressed concerns about several election issues, including reports of stuffing of ballot boxes for PML (Q) candidates, improvised (ghost) polling stations, use of government machinery by nazims to campaign for PML (Q) candidates and the inability of the Election Commission to address PPP’s complaints of violations of electoral laws.

She said the PPP welcomed the presence of EU officials to monitor the January 8 election and noted the importance of the benchmarks that would determine which way the elections were going.

Ms Bhutto said the PPP had decided to participate in the political process, which would either force the regime to make it credible, or else its rigging plan would be exposed. If the PPP did not participate in the process, the regime would not need to rig and would claim credibility of the process, she said.

Ms Bhutto also took up the case of judges and members of the Supreme Court Bar Association who have still not been released. She thanked the British foreign secretary for support in demanding release of political prisoners. However, she said that the judges, SCBA president Chaudhry Aitzaz Ahsan, who was also a PPP candidate, Munir Malik, a former president of the SCBA, who was suffering from renal failure, and many other lawyers were still under custody.