Pakistan's ruling PPP leader Asif Ali Zardari has announced his plans to contest the upcoming parliamentary by-polls and said he could become prime minister if needed.

Zardari also said that though President Pervez Musharraf had a role to play in Pakistan’s new set-up, the PPP would think about impeaching him when the ruling coalition achieves a two-thirds majority in parliament.

The co-chairman of Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) 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 also said his party did not have the strength to confront Musharraf. “The parliament and the president have a formal relationship. For the time being, we are not breaking up that status quo. We don’t have that power,” Zardari told the BBC’s Urdu language service.

“For the sake of the country, we don’t want confrontation. But this doesn’t mean we accept him (Musharraf). If we get the two-thirds majority we will think about making him accountable,” Zardari said. 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.” Whenever his party managed to get a two-thirds majority in parliament, it would think about impeaching Musharraf, 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.

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