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Benazir nominates new leader for polls

K J M Varma in Islamabad

Former Pakistan prime minister Benazir Bhutto on Monday backed out from a direct confrontation with President Pervez Musharraf by nominating a new leadership to head her Pakistan Peoples Party ahead of October 10 general elections.

Bhutto sprang a last minute surprise by nominating a new wing of her Pakistan Peoples Party called the Pakistan People's Party Parliamentarians under present PPP vice-chairman Makhdoom Amin Fahim to run for the polls.

Another senior leader Raja Pervez Ashraf was appointed secretary general.

Bhutto made the changes in compliance with fresh rules brought in by Musharraf's government barring a party headed by a person convicted by courts from contesting elections.

"A group of leaders met in Islamabad on Monday to form the PPP Parliamentarians. The aim of PPP Parliamentarians is to build a progressive and democratic society in accordance with the principles, philosophies and politics of Quaid-e-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah, Quaid-e-Awam Zulfikar Ali Bhutto and Quaid-e-Jamhooriyat Benazir Bhutto," a PPP release said.

The party maintained that Bhutto would remain a political guide of this new grouping although she would not hold an elective office in it.

This is the first time that the party has nominated a non-Bhutto as its leader after it was founded by Benazir's father, the late Zulfikar Ali Bhutto.

The press release was silent on whether Bhutto would return to Pakistan and take part in the polls.

PTI

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