KARACHI, Aug 17: Former prime minister Benazir Bhutto said on Saturday that she remains determined to contest Oct 10 elections, despite being disqualified from running in the polls by President Pervez Musharraf.

The two-time former prime minister said if she remained barred from contesting the forthcoming poll, the elections would lack credibility. “I am sure people will question the credibility of an electoral process where their chosen representative is excluded,” she told AFP in an interview from London.

“I hope that I can participate and look toward the people ... of Pakistan to support the People’s Party Parliamentarians (PPP).

“I hope to run for premier myself as I am still qualified to contest and I will file my nomination papers by Aug 24,” she said referring a deadline set by Electoral Commission.

Benazir told AFP earlier this month that she would return to Pakistan in late August or early September to pursue her bid for re-election, despite threats that she would be arrested on her arrival.

But she still has to win a legal battle which was adjourned on Friday until Aug 21 to qualify for participation in the Oct 10 polls.

She is contesting two laws which have resulted in her disqualification from the elections, the first since President Pervez Musharraf seized power in the takeover in October 1999.

Her lawyers are challenging one law introduced last year which requires defendants to be present in person at trials, and another introduced this month which bans “absconders” from running for election.

Under the 2001 law, Benazir was convicted twice this year of absconding after she failed to return to Pakistan to appear corruption trials in May and July.

Ms Bhutto, who was dismissed on corruption charges in 1990 and 1996, maintains that the laws are “Bhutto-specific” and has accused Musharraf of acting to prevent her returning to politics.

“(Now) there is a morally bankrupt and corrupt mafia that has strangled democracy in Pakistan to rob our citizens of their right to freedom and human dignity, equal opportunity and progress,” she told AFP on Saturday.

Her legal team have told the court in Karachi that only voters should be allowed to decide who can and cannot be elected.

“My client has been elected (to parliament) four times, was twice prime minister and has now been subjected to victimisation through unconstitutional means,” lawyer Kamal Azfar said.

Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) pulled out of the elections on the basis of her disqualification and formed a separate wing called the People’s Party Parliamentarians (PPP) to contest the elections without her.

Party leaders say Benazir would be elected Prime Minister by its members should the PPP win the election.

Meanwhile, the People’s Parliamentarians kick-started its election campaign on Saturday when over 300 party workers went to collect nomination papers for Benazir in Larkana, party leaders said.

Veteran party leader, Ashraf Abbasi, was authorized by Benazir to collect nomination papers for registration as a candidate in Larkana, her home constituency, Abbasi’s son Munawar Abbasi told AFP by telephone.