Pakistan Views

Martyred Benazir Bhutto’s party appointed her son Bilawal and her husband Asif Ali Zardari to succeed the slain PPP leader on Sunday and the party said it would take part in a Jan 8 election as Martyred Benazir would have wanted.

But a senior official of the former ruling party said the election was likely to be delayed for up to eight weeks.

Benazir martyrdom in a suicide attack on Thursday has stoked violence and thrown into doubt the election, deepening a crisis in the important US ally against terrorism as it struggles to emerge from military rule.

Bilawal, an Oxford law student, is Bhutto’s 19-year-old son. He will lead the party as chairman with his father, Asif Ali Zardari, who is to be co-chairman.

Zardari said the party would take part in the election as his martyred Benazir would have wanted.

“Despite this dangerous situation, we will go for January 8 elections, according to her will and thinking,” Zardari told a news conference at the martyred Benazir family home in Naudero, after a party meeting.

Bilawal, introduced at the news conference as Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, said the party’s long struggle for democracy would continue with new vigour. “My mother always said, democracy is the best revenge,” he said.

Earlier, a senior official of the party that backs President Pervez Musharraf and ruled until a caretaker government was set up last month, said a postponement of the election was increasingly likely because of the turmoil that erupted after Benazir martyrdom.

“It seems more than likely that elections will be delayed,” the official, Tariq Azim Khan, told Reuters. He said he expected a six to eight week postponement.

Martyred Benazir had hoped to win power for a third time in the vote though analysts expected a three-way split between her, PML-N and PML-Q.

The party can expect to pick up a sympathy vote after Benazir’s martyrdom and its core support would remain for now, even though Bilawal would return to university

“It will retain support in the short term but obviously, in the long term they’ll have to earn their spurs and demonstrate leadership,” said former minister and analyst Shafqat Mahmood.

But the choice of the Bilawal and Zardari to lead the party raised eyebrows among some people.

“I don’t think Zardari is capable enough of handling the party himself. Bilawal is too young, the father is not capable. Someone else should be appointed,” said Ferooz Menon, 37, who has an electronics business in the eastern city of Lahore.

Anger against Musharraf burns strongly among martyred Benazir Bhutto supporters and since her death sporadic violence has erupted, boosting fears about country stability.

The death toll from the violence has reached 47.

Streets in Karachi were generally quiet and deserted on Sunday though a disabled man was burned to death when a petrol station was set on fire.

Bhutto’s Pakistan People’s Party has dismissed a government statement that al Qaeda killed her, saying Musharraf’s embattled administration was trying to cover up its failure to protect her.