LAHORE, Sept 8: Warmly welcomed by PPP workers at his arrival at the Bilawal House here after vacating the Presidency, former president Asif Ali Zardari hinted at making Lahore the citadel of his party and pledged that he would not allow anyone to weaken (prime minister) Nawaz Sharif.

`...We want to tell the forces interested in the politics of bullet, instead of ballot, that we haven`t lost the war. There`ll be elections after five years and then again after another five years,` he said while addressing PPP workers assembled at his Lahore residence.

Mr Sharif had been expressing similar sentiments, particularly during the early days of the PPP-led government.

After having acted as arch rivals during the 1980s and early and mid-1990s, the PML-N and the PPP had adopted a policy of reconciliation and co-existence to protect democracy against the forces of dictatorship.

On his arrival in Lahore, Mr Zardari was received at the airport by Punjab Agriculture Minister Dr Farrukh Javed. He boarded a helicopter for his Bahria Town residence where hundreds of people had been waiting for him for hours. Led by Aitzaz Ahsan, Qamaruzzaman Kaira, Raja Pervaiz Ashraf andLateef Khosa, enthusiastic activists raised slogans of `Jeay Bhutto` and `Welcome, Zardari welcome.

Speaking on the occasion, Mr Zardari said he wondered how could the party which swept polls in Sindh lost while crossing into Punjab.

The PPP accepted the electoral results for the sake of continuity of democracy.

`The purpose of stealing the PPP mandate was to put the region on fire, but for the sake of coming generations, we accepted the mandate (of others). Otherwise it was notdifficult to ignite a fire,` he said. He said that for him the era of popular politics had set in and after leaving the presidency he felt like a free man.

He said he was satisfied with the role he had played for the stability of the country and (promotion of) democracy, adding that he wished to set new democratic traditions.

He claimed that the empowering of the poor and women had created a Pakistan as envisioned by Zulfikar Ali Bhutto and Benazir Bhutto.