LAHORE, Feb 21: Pakistan People’s Party chairperson Benazir Bhutto would return to Pakistan before the elections and take part in the polls scheduled for October, PPP’s Punjab president Qasim Zia said here on Thursday.

Speaking at a news conference at the office of provincial information secretary, Naveed Chaudhry, he said so far there was no law barring Ms Bhutto from contesting the elections.

He said the PPP chairperson was not afraid of being arrested or imprisoned. She would return at an appropriate time before the elections, he said, adding that no date had been set for the purpose.

The PPP, he said, was preparing itself for the elections and its mass mobilization campaign was going on.

“It is the exclusive prerogative of the electorate to bring someone to power or reject him in polls. It is beyond the competence of any government to keep any leader out of the electoral process,” the PPP leader argued when a reporter invited his attention to an official spokesman’s statement that Ms Bhutto stood no chance of assuming power in the future.

He said the PPP, like other parties in the Alliance for Restoration of Democracy, was demanding arrangements for free and fair general elections. He said the PPP had already expressed reservations about the local elections held under the military government.

“In politics, doors are never closed to talks,” Qasim Zia said when a reporter asked him if the government was still in contact with the PPP.

Replying to a question, he said under the constitution Gen Pervez Musharraf was not a legitimate president. He said the procedure for the election of the head of state had been clearly defined in the basic law.

Asked if the PPP was willing to enhance the army’s role in the constitution, Qasim Zia said only an elected parliament could take a decision on the subject. He said the army’s role could be redefined only through an amendment to the constitution, a subject which fell in the jurisdiction of the parliament.

He regretted that a fresh case had been instituted against Asif Zardari after the courts had allowed him bail in previous cases. He said the PPP would not give in to such pressure tactics.

He vehemently denied press reports that the PPP chairperson had held a meeting with President Musharraf during the latter’s visit to the United States.

Ignoring former federal minister Iftikhar Gilani’s decision to quit the PPP to join the Pakistan Muslim League (Quaid-i-Azam), Qasim Zia said that reports suggesting that Rao Sikandar Iqbal was about to follow suit were baseless.