Benazir ready for polls under Musharraf

But, she warned that all Oppn parties would quit parliament if Musharraf tried to get re-elected as president from the present assemblies.

Former Pakistan prime minister Benazir Bhutto has declared that her party the PPP was ready to participate in general elections under the country's President Pervez Musharraf.

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But, she warned that all Opposition parties would unite and quit parliament if Musharraf tried to get re-elected as president from the present assemblies.

She said that the other main Opposition party the PML-N would also do the same at the next polls, as it had participated in the 2002 elections under Musharraf, reported the Daily Times.

Meanwhile, the party denied Federal Parliamentary Affairs Minister Dr Sher Afgan Niazi's recent statement that a deal between the PPP and the federal government was on the anvil.

"Those who think that the PPP has accepted a uniformed general as the president are daydreaming," The News quoted party spokesman Farhatullah Babar as saying.

He added that Musharraf had sneaked into the presidency through a "fraudulent referendum and rigged elections", and he was an "illegal occupant" of the state's highest office.

"The PPP has always opposed generals' participation in politics, and the party will never accept the military in any political role.

"To say that the PPP has agreed to Musharraf's election as President in uniform by the current assemblies for five years is a fanciful flight of the minister's imagination ... he keeps making such outlandish statements to attract public attention," he added.