KARACHI, Dec 12: PPP leader Asif Ali Zardari said on Sunday that the party, under the leadership of Benazir Bhutto, was striving for a change of undemocratic and anti-people system and if she was not allowed to return home to contest elections, Makhdoom Amin Fahim would be the party's nominee for the top slot of prime minister.

He made it clear that Mr Fahim had been given the responsibility by the party's chairperson and it was mere figment of somebody's imagination that he (Mr Zardari) was contemplating to take over the party. He appeared confident that general elections were going to be held next year.

Mr Zardari, who had stated soon after his release from eight years of detention that he could serve as a bridge between different political forces, was informally responding to newsmen's questions during a surprise visit to the Karachi Press Club where he commended the role of the press in pushing the agenda for a democratic change.

He said that Benazir Bhutto would be returning to the country to lead people and address their problems. "She accords top priority to providing jobs to the harassed jobless,'' he added.

In reply to a question related to President Musharraf's retaining the post of army chief as well, Mr Zardari said the PPP was not homing in on the individual alone, but also the whole Establishment of which Musharraf was a part and which had held the nation hostage to its narrow-minded anti-people agenda.

He commended Benazir Bhutto who, he said, was undergoing a long spell of agony in exile for the sake of democracy, constitutional dispensation and the people at large.

He told a questioner that his release was not part of any 'deal' and it would have no bearing on political developments. He said that if he wanted to compromise and seek release, he would have done so long ago.

He said the top priority of the next PPP government would be to provide jobs because lack of jobs was contributing to extremism and anarchy which was the result of the present regime's policies.

Asif Zardari recalled that the PPP had provided jobs to people in the past as well without any consideration of their political leanings. He also expressed concern over mounting poverty, population explosion and degradation of environment.

He apprehended that the shortage of water and other energy resources would assume serious dimension, and said one could not rule out the possibility of riparian wars if equitable and just distribution of water was not worked out.

He stressed the need for better water management and conservancy measures. He urged experts to find out means of taping more water resources and inducing rains.

The PPP leader was of the view that timber mafia had done great harm to the ecology of the country and the region, and called for bringing an end this negative trend. He said that if Pakistan harnessed its energy resources scientifically, it could reap a better harvest.

Deploring that the present government was oblivious to the problems being faced by masses, he said that if the prime minister spent some years in jail, he would be able to understand the reality of Pakistan.

Asked whether he feared his re-arrest, Mr Zardari replied that he had not withdrawn his belongings from the jail. He pointed out that he had been released on bail in a case and acquitted in some other cases. "Nothing has, so far, been proved against me,'' he added.

When Mr Zardari was asked to comment on the Sindh chief minister's remarks with regard to threat to his life, he said that it only reflected the chief minister's mindset and his failure to ensure citizens' security.

When his comment was sought on the remarks by Muttahida Qaumi Movement's chief Altaf Hussain on the two-nation theory, Mr Zardari said that everybody had the right to have views and express them.

"But the PPP will defend Pakistan to the last drop of blood,'' he stressed. In reply to a question, he said he had applied for a passport and would seek permission to travel abroad whenever it was advisable.

The PPP leader emphasized that it was time for the Establishment to look at the stark realities of the situation within and outside the country and the evolving threat to the country. He called for unity among political forces to make a fresh beginning by emancipating the society from the clutches of the Establishment.