Friday, June 16 2006 10:19 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Islamabad: The Opposition Pakistan Peoples Party yesterday (June 15, 2006) denounced as a 'monumental political fraud' President Pervez Musharraf's plan to seek another term in the office.

"The so-called election of Musharraf by the existing Assemblies would not only be malafide but also a monumental political fraud", Benazir Bhutto, former Prime Minister and PPP leader who lived in self-exile abroad, said in a statement released by her party here Reacting to statements made by top ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Q leaders saying that Musharraf would be re-elected by the present Assemblies before their dissolution in 2007, she said such declarations only amounted to asserting that the President will not abide even by the Constitution that has already been massively disfigured for the sole purpose of extending his tenure.

"Musharraf is not an elected president under the Constitution and therefore does not have a term that ends in November 2007 after which he can seek re-election from the present assemblies," she said.

"He (Musharraf) must open the political space equally to all political actors, step down as army chief and then, if he so wanted, run afresh as a candidate for president after the provincial assemblies, National Assembly and Senate have been elected in a free and fair election in 2007", she said.

Bhutto said in the first place Musharraf was never elected constitutionally to qualify for re-election. The PPP leader said, "Musharraf claims to have legitimised his rule through the fraudulent referendum that preceded the flawed elections of 2002. The referendum was universally recognised as a sham".