ISLAMABAD, Sept 23: Pakistan People's Party (PPP) Chairperson Benazir Bhutto has said water shortage in the country and the debate on new dams needed resolution in accordance with set precedents and constitutional mechanism already established for such settlements.

According to a statement issued here, Ms Bhutto made the demand while speaking at a seminar organized by the World Sindhi Institute in Washington on Thursday. The objective of the seminar was to focus on the need to end military rule in the country.

She said: "Not one of the many complaints filed by the PPP before NAB has received a serious hearing." While the budget for armaments purchase went up, the budget for the elimination of poverty went down, she said.

Ms Bhutto said the Quaid-i-Azam had dreamt of Pakistan as a federal democratic and enlightened country with the provinces enjoying autonomy and the people having fundamental human rights.

Zulfikar Ali Bhutto and hundreds of others gave their lives to fulfill the dream of a democratic Pakistan at peace with itself and its neighbours. The former prime minister said the first step to democracy was holding of fair, free and impartial elections open to all parties and all individuals.

"The Pakistan People's Party has called for elections under the Pakistan Human Rights Commission rules that ensure fairness of the process and the vote count," she said.

Elections, Ms Bhutto said, were only the first step. Democracy needed tolerance, rule of law, independent judiciary and a mechanism to investigate claims of torture and perversion of justice.

She said citizens needed court system that could deliver justice and the youth needed jobs that came with investment which in turn was dependent on the rule of law. When suicide bombers and assassins dictated the agenda, investment was an illusion, she said.

She said her spouse, Asif Ali Zardari, had spent more than seven years in prison without a single conviction against him for wrongdoing.

Several PPP workers were killed this year, while, the party chairman, Yousaf Raza Gillani, had joined other political prisoners of Pakistan like Pir Mukarram, Bismillah Kakar and Salahudin Dogar, she added.