Pakistan's ruling PPP leader Asif Ali Zardari has announced his plans to contest the upcoming parliamentary by-polls and said that he could become prime minister if needed.
Zardari also said that though President Pervez Musharraf had a role to play in the new set-up, the Pakistan People's Party would think about impeaching him when the ruling coalition achieves a two-thirds majority in parliament.
The PPP co-chairman refused to give a firm commitment that he would become the prime minister but said he would assume the office if the need arises.
Zardari had last month nominated Yousuf Raza Gillani for the post of premier after extensive consultations within PPP, and had then said that he had no plans to take up the post.
In an interview with BBC, Zardari said he and his sister Faryal Talpur will submit nomination papers for by-polls, to slain former premier and his wife Benazir Bhutto's constituency of Larkana, in Sindh province.
Responding to a question about his 'love-hate' relationship with the President, Zardari said he neither loved nor hated Musharraf.
Asked whether he and the PPP had accepted the President because of political expediency, he said: "No. We have done so because of our wish to get the requisite political support."
"We do not want confrontation with anyone for the sake of Pakistan. It does not necessarily mean that we support President Musharraf. Whenever we manage to get a two-thirds majority in parliament, we will think about impeaching him," Zardari said.
Endorsing his ally Pakistan Muslim League-N chief Nawaz Sharif's statement that Zardari and he had agreed on Musharraf's impeachment, the PPP leader said he believed in strengthening democracy and upholding the supremacy of parliament.
"People have voted for us to bring about change.... We will bring change, but its timing depends on circumstances," Zardari said.
He expressed his party's resolve to reinstate the judges deposed by Musharraf during last year's emergency but said that a package for judicial reforms will also be presented in Parliament at the same time.
Zardari said the judges had not started a movement because they sensed a threat to democracy or the system but because of personal concerns that their jobs were in jeopardy. "Despite this, I will reinstate the judges," he said, adding that he wanted to strengthen the judiciary so that it would not succumb to pressure from the executive.
Replying to a question about Musharraf's move to impose emergency on November 3 last year and suspend the Constitution, Zardari said he was opposed to all extra-constitutional steps, including the emergency rule.
He said the establishment that brought Musharraf to power in 1999 was involved in 'palace intrigues' against the new coalition government.
Asked to identify the hidden elements that are conspiring to destabilise the new set-up, he said: "We can identify them. You call these forces as the establishment."
Zardari said, "These elements tried to coerce (Benazir) Bhutto into boycotting the elections, but when Bhutto rejected their demands, they threatened to confine the PPP to Sindh. Benazir successfully resisted these forces. These are the same forces which brought President Pervez Musharraf to power and they are the same who indulge in palace intrigues."
Zardari also said that the government would request the United Nations for an investigation into Bhutto's assassination. He brushed aside fears that the bureaucracy would create hurdles in this regard.
He disclosed that Bhutto had stated in her will that she would like his sister Faryal Talpur to be her children's guardian, possibly because she realised that the responsibility of being the PPP's co-chairman was a heavy burden for him.
"She might have preferred Faryal as a guardian because she knew that I was to undertake the heavy responsibility of being the party's Chairman and also because of the fact that whoever became the party's Chairman was martyred," he said.
