PESHAWAR, Dec 12: Pakistan People’s Party chairperson Benazir Bhutto has called upon the people to frustrate what she called the king’s party’s plans to rig the January 8 elections.

Speaking at a party convention in Pubbi town, about 16 kilometres east of here, she said: “I am without guns, tanks and F-16s, but I have the strength and support of the masses, the fountainhead of political power. The people will empower us.”

She said the people should empower the PPP if they wanted an end to violence and lawlessness in the country.

All military dictators, she said, had harmed the solidarity and integrity of the country during their repressive tenures.

Ayub Khan installed 22 super-rich families, Gen Yahya pushed the country a civil war that dismembered the country, Gen Zia handed over the Siachen glacier to India and Gen Musharraf brought the shame of Kargil.

She said the ongoing violence in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (Fata) and in Swat was aimed at destabilising the country, already groaning under the burden of ‘inept and corrupt’ rulers.

After coming into power, she said, the PPP would set up a judicial system in Fata and also enforce the political party law in tribal areas.

She said the war in Afghanistan had created serious problems for Pakistan.

“I am against the use of Pakistani territory against Afghanistan,” she said.

The PPP chief said a political solution to the problem of extremism was necessary. She said religious extremism had endangered the very existence of the country.

“Where were 800,000 troops when Swat was taken over by militants? Who attacked our children in Kamra? Why did militants kill poor and law-abiding people in Swat? she said.

She also spoke about the problem of rising prices.