Pakistan Views

The co-chairman of Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) Asif Ali Zardari used the climax of a 40-day mourning period (Chehlum) to vow that he would risk martyrdom of Benazir Bhutto to win a posthumous election victory for his late wife.
“If I am martyred before completing the mission of Benazir Bhutto, then I should also be buried here,” Asif Ali Zardari said in a speech on Thursday to thousands of mourners gathered outside a white marble mausoleum in Benazir’s ancestral village.
Votes for a new parliament and provincial assembly in an election that was delayed until Feb. 18 after Benazir’s martyrdom in Rawalpindi on Dec. 27.
Zardari, who a day earlier scotched talk that he wanted to become prime minister, has not said whether he favoured working with or against President Musharraf should the PPP ride a wave of sympathy to victory in the vote later this month.
The PPP’s likely choice for the premiership is its deputy chairman, Makhdoom Amin Fahim.
Chehlum
About 20,000 people gathered in the village of Garhi Khuda Baksh to pay their last respects to the most charismatic politician of the past 20 years.
Chants of Quranic verses and sombre hymns filled the chilly morning air in the dusty village set amid paddy fields in a rural backwater of southern Sindh province.
Before Zardari could enter the tomb, hordes of people forced their way inside chanting “Long Live Bhutto”, some weeping and beating their heads in grief.
“This is the fight between establishment and the people,” Zardari said in a speech imploring Pakistanis to vote for PPP.
Moments earlier he had prayed at the rose petal strewn grave in the mausoleum where Benazir lies alongside her father, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, Pakistan’s first popularly elected prime minister.
Her father was toppled and hanged by the military in the late 1970s, but the PPP still draws on his populist appeal.
“Zulfikar Ali Bhutto laid down his life for his mission and so did his daughter. I myself and the party will take forward this mission,” said Zardari.
Conspiracy theories still swirl over who was behind the gun and suicide bomb attack that martyred Benazir.
Controversy even rages over whether Benazir was martyred by a bullet or by a concussive head injury caused by the bomb detonated after an assassin shot at her from close range.
Police have arrested two more suspects in connection with her death, the interior minister said on Thursday.
“Right now, I can only say that two suspects have been apprehended in this connection,” Hamid Nawaz told Reuters.
Two others, including a 15-year-old youth who admitted being a back-up suicide bomber, were arrested last month.
The government and the Central Intelligence Agency suspect the involvement of a Taliban commander with links to al Qaeda, which they say is trying to destabilise Pakistan.
A British police team that the government invited to investigate is expected to submit its report on Friday, according to media.