KARACHI, Oct 23: Federal Minister for Railways Shaikh Rashid Ahmed insisted on Tuesday that Pakistan People’s Party chairperson Benazir Bhutto would not be the next prime minister of Pakistan.

Replying to newsmen’s questions at a press conference he held to announce the launch of a new train, Bhambore Express, which will run between Karachi and Rawalpindi via Faisalabad and whose fare will be Rs555 per person, he explained that the PPP would have a positive role in the future set-up, but Benazir Bhutto would not be prime minister.

The minister who had been privy to the backdoor negotiations with the PPP leadership on the much-maligned National Reconciliation Ordinance, said the Muttahida Qaumi Movement was likely to win one more seat than its traditional numbers in the upcoming general election. He also said that JUI chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman would also have a key role to play in the next parliament.

Replying to a question on the Oct 18 midnight carnage during the Benazir homecoming rally, he said Ms Bhutto should have known that “anybody arriving here under the banner of imperialism would be opposed by the people”.

In the same breath, however, he said that President Gen Pervez Musharraf and Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz had also been attacked, the former six times.

He said the PPP leader had been warned of such attacks beforehand, though he personally believed it was not advisable to ask her to postpone her return when the party had made such elaborate preparations.

He deplored that so many poor people had been killed in the twin blasts, and sarcastically asked “why is it that the poor are always killed while the leaders enjoy the safety of their bullet-proof vehicles. Politicians playing ‘rally, rally’, make the masses pay the price.”

He suggested that the PPP chairperson pay Rs10 million compensation to the heirs of each of the 140 people killed in the blasts. “After all, she has a lot of money. She should pay this much to the poor.”

Asked how many people in his view had attended the Benazir homecoming procession, he said just read the reports of foreign news agencies and they put the turnout at between 150,000 and 200,000.

Referring to Ms Bhutto’s demand for foreign investigators to probe the Oct 18 blasts, he said if Ms Bhutto had no confidence in the local intelligence agencies, she would have trouble ruling the country. Alluding to the role played by the former ISI chief and the now vice chief of army staff, Lt-Gen Parvez Ashfaque Kayani, he said it was “the mother of all intelligence agencies’ which had recommended her homecoming.”

He said the president might have been soft on a third time prime ministership, but he was opposed to the withdrawal of corruption cases against her. It were politicians, including himself, who had persuaded the president to take back the cases. He said both the PPP and the government had come under attack on the issue of withdrawal of cases.

Referring to her nominating Punjab chief minister Pervaiz Elahi in the blasts case, he said Chaudhry Shujaat was justified in alleging that her husband, Asif Zardari, had hatched a conspiracy to stage the blasts to gain sympathy for the party. He said the blame-game was started by the PPP leader, which exposed her lack of sagacity. He said it was regrettable that Pakistani politicians had not learnt even to establish a working relationship among themselves.

He said although Benazir Bhutto and President Gen Pervez Mushrraf had developed a good relationship, the PML-Q and the PPP had not begun getting along well.

Mr Rashid warned that the National Reconciliation would be in jeopardy if the PPP leader did not stop pointing finger at officials and members of the ruling party.

He said if the assemblies were dissolved on Nov 14, the election campaigning period would be 90 days, and if the dissolution was effected on Nov 15, the period would be only 60 days.