Pakistani Democracy Is Achievable: Bhutto Widower

Zardari: stakes high in Saturday's elections

By Wesley Oliver, Newser Staff

Posted Sep 4, 2008 8:31 AM CDT

(Newser) – Pakistan, still reeling from Benazir Bhutto's assassination and Pervez Musharraf's resignation, can get a grip on terrorists and win the fight against dictatorship, insists Bhutto’s widower in a Washington Post op-ed outlining the stakes in Saturday's election. Asif Ali Zardari, who’s running for president, vows to continue his wife’s fight against terror, which he called a “battle for Pakistan’s soul.”

“I owe it to my party and my country,” Zardari writes, “but above all to my wife, who lost her life striving to make Pakistan free, pluralist, and democratic.” Pakistan, he adds, stands with America against terror, adding, “The war we are fighting is our war. My party and I are struggling to save our nation.”

[Images (5)]

[Quotes (1)]

Asif Ali Zardari, widower of former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, is running for the presidency of Pakistan. (AP Photo/Shakil Adil)

A Pakistani lawyer tears down a poster of Asif Ali Zardari, who will run for president in the Sept. 6 election by lawmakers, during a demonstration in Islamabad last week. (AP Photo)

A Pakistani police officer stands guard an avenue next to a poster that shows among others Bhutto's widower and political successor, Asif Ali Zardari. (AP Photo/K.M. Chaudary)

Asif Ali Zardari says that Pakistan is "a victim of terrorism" and that the country's fight against terror is a battle for "Pakistan's soul." (AP Photo/Thanassis Stavrakis, File)

Asif Ali Zardari vows "to amend the constitution to bring back into balance the powers of the presidency and thereby reduce its ability to bring down democratic governance." (AP Photo)

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I spent nine years in prison as a hostage to my wife's career. Those years made me a stronger person and hardened my resolve to fight for democracy. I wish I could do it at my wife's side. Now I must do it in my wife's place. - Asif Ali Zardari, Washington Post

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Pakistani Democracy Is Achievable: Bhutto Widower