Islamabad - Former premier Nawaz Sharif offered his backing Saturday to Asif Ali Zardari, the widower of assassinated leader Benazir Bhutto, in Pakistan's presidential race, provided that he abolishes the president's power to dissolve parliament.

On Friday, Bhutto's Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) unanimously put forward Zardari, who has headed the PPP since her assassination in December last year, for the post. The election has been set for September 6.

"It is the prerogative of the PPP to nominate its candidate for the office of president if the 17th amendment is scrapped," Sharif, who heads the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), said at his home near the eastern city of Lahore.

The 17th constitutional amendment was passed by former president Pervez Musharraf's backers in parliament to strengthen his grip.

PML-N spokesman Siddiqul Farooq said the party wanted to cut the president's powers because it did not want to see "a military dictatorship being replaced by a civilian dictatorship."

Musharraf, who came to power in a 1999 coup, resigned on Monday to avoid impeachment by parliament, which has been dominated since the February 18 elections by his foes in the PPP and the PML-N.

The left-wing PPP, which has 123 seats in 342-seat National Assembly, and the right-wing PML-N, which has 91, are engaged in a dispute over the restoration of more than
60 judges purged by Musharraf under an emergency order on November 3 last year.

PPP leader Zardari has been reluctant to reinstate the independent former chief justice Iftikhar Chaudhry.

According to some analysts, he fears that, once back in office, the top judge could annul a controversial amnesty granted him by Musharraf regarding the embezzlement of millions of dollars of state funds when his wife was the prime minister in the 1990s.

Bhutto's widower was detained for more than 11 years in connection with the allegations, which have not been proved in a court of law. (dpa)