Benazir Bhutto

Whatever my aims and agendas were, I never asked for power.

The military destabilised my government on politically motivated charges.

Democracy is necessary to peace and to undermining the forces of terrorism.

As a woman leader, I thought I brought a different kind of leadership. I was interested in women's issues, in bringing down the population growth rate... as a woman, I entered politics with an additional dimension - that of a mother.

Military hardliners called me a 'security threat' for promoting peace in South Asia and for supporting a broad-based government in Afghanistan.

The government I led gave ordinary people peace, security, dignity, and opportunity to progress.

I am constitutionally competent to contest the elections.

Democracy needs support, and the best support for democracy comes from other democracies.

Pakistan's future viability, stability and security lie in empowering its people and building political institutions. My goal is to prove that the fundamental battle for the hearts and minds of a generation can be accomplished only under democracy.

Pakistan is heir to an intellectual tradition of which the illustrious exponent was the poet and philosopher Mohammad Iqbal. He saw the future course for Islamic societies in a synthesis between adherence to the faith and adjustment to the modern age.