KARACHI, Oct 7: President Asif Ali Zardari has said that former military ruler Pervez Musharraf has a right to take part in politics, but he will have to follow the course “we have taken in our political struggle riddled with sacrifices”.

During an interaction with media representatives here on Thursday, Mr Zardari said there was no short cut in politics. He rubbished speculations about the future of parliament and said he had delegated his powers to the parliament and it was powerful enough to protect itself.

He said that people were with the PPP and they had voted the party to power. “People know what is good and what is bad.”

Mr Zardari again fired a broadside at what he calls 'political actors' and said he was looking for the director of the actors.

Answering a question about Dr Aafia Siddiqui's sentencing by a US court, the president said he would advise the government to help her family in filing an appeal against the sentence.

He said the government had provided legal assistance to Dr Aafia during her trial in the US court. “We can support her family on humanitarian grounds for filing the appeal which is legally possible.”

Answering another question, he said the present government during the past two and a half years had done for Balochistan much more than what had been done in 60 years. Besides the Balochistan package and his apology for injustices committed against its people in the past, he added, the present government had increased the share of the province in the NFC award and waived its loans.

The president said the government had singed an agreement with China for building nine small dams in Pakistan. He said that construction of Diamer-Bhasha dam had been approved and China and the World Bank had agreed to finance the project. He said the PPP had a history of building dams and “we are working on a project to construct small dams and canal dams”.

Mr Zardari said that the Sindh government had obtained approval for building hydel power projects of up to 15 megawatts and reservoirs where water would be stored during floods through causeways.

APP adds: The president assured journalists that their issues, including life insurance, security and residential plots, would be resolved. He said the government had given trade union rights to the people, including journalists, and they should use available forums for their rights.