PESHAWAR, Dec 26: Pakistan People’s Party chairperson Benazir Bhutto has said her party is the biggest political force in the country and it will not allow the rulers to rig the elections.

Addressing a public meeting at the Arbab Niaz Stadium here on Wednesday, she said the PPP and the PML-N had been demanding free, fair and transparent elections and peaceful transfer of power to the winning party.

She expressed the hope that the caretaker set-up would hold free and fair elections.

Ms Bhutto said that during its previous tenures the PPP had tried to equip the country with the latest and modern technology so that it could emerge as a modern state in the region. She said her party had set up hospitals and educational institutions in the NWFP and tribal areas during its first tenure.

She said that dictators had never allowed the civilian governments to complete their terms.

“Anti-people forces are our enemies because we believe in the might of people while the dictators and their allies are afraid of people’s might,” she claimed.

The PPP chairperson said her party was in favour of press freedom. She said the PPP was also in favour of student and trade unions.

“We want an exploitation-free society based on social justice and rule of law. We are opposed to poverty, backwardness and political and sectarian feuds, because we consider all these vices repugnant to the human development and dignity,” she said.

Criticising the military dictators, she said they were responsible for the dismemberment of the country and defeat at Siachen and Kargil.

Today, she said, two million educated youths were unemployed owing to the wrong policies of the successive dictatorial regimes.“In our tenure flour was Rs8 per kg, today it is

Rs30. Petrol was Rs5 litre in 1988, today it is over Rs50,” she added.

Ms Bhutto said that militants were by-product of the Afghan war and were playing havoc with the lives of people in Fata and other districts.

Our Taxila Correspondent adds: Addressing party workers at the residence of Sardar Shoaib Mumtaz, candidate for NA-53, in Taxila, Ms Bhutto said the PPP was committed to socio-economic betterment of the masses.

“The slogan of roti, kapra aur makan raised by the PPP in 1970 is still the need of people and, if voted to power, my party would provide these basic needs to the masses without any discrimination,” she claimed.She said the PPP was struggling to establish a democratic society in the country. “We believe in the supremacy of law and minimum interference of the army in political affairs.”

Ms Bhutto said her party would give people better health and education facilities and job opportunities.

She expressed the hope that a true democratic atmosphere would prevail after the January 8 polls. She urged people to come forward and vote for the PPP to end poverty, unemployment and other social problems facing the masses.

She said the PPP had a comprehensive programme to convert the country into a welfare state.