Benazir elected party chief for life

Pakistan's twice-deposed premier Benazir Bhutto was on Monday elected chairperson of the Pakistan People's Party for life.

This comes close on the heels of a press report that Bhutto was planning to resign from office. Bhutto holds President Farooq Ahmed Khan Leghari, who sacked her for misrule last November, responsible for this. ''It is clear that you are misusing and abusing the intelligence agencies in carrying out your war against our party," she charged in a letter to the President.

She said she had given an interview to a Swiss journalist soon after her party's central executive committee meeting on Saturday. But even before the journalist could file his story, the President's 'intelligence boys' had fed a distorted version to the news agency, she claimed, alleging that her residence was bugged.

Meanwhile, Bhutto's party has passed a resolution condemning the recent acts of lawlessness in the country, but warning Prime Minister Nawaz Sharief against using the military to curb these incidents.

The resolution was in response to President Leghari's ordinance last week allowing the military to help curb arms and drugs trafficking in the country.