Bhutto Son and Husband to Head Dynasty Party

By DAMIEN HENDERSON

BENAZIR Bhutto’s 19-year-old son was chosen yesterday to succeed her as chairman of her opposition party, extending Pakistan’s most famous political dynasty.

The appointment will leave the real powerwith Ms Bhutto’s husband, Asif Ali Zardari, who will serve as co-chairman along with Oxford University student Bilawal Zardari. In his first statement as chairman of the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP), Bilawal alluded to Ms Bhutto’s assassination and Pakistan’s forthcoming elections: “My mother always said democracy is the best revenge, ” he said.

Both major opposition parties also decided to run in forthcoming parliamentary elections, apparently ending the threat of a wholesale boycott as Pakistan struggles to move to full democracy after years of military rule.

There also appeared to be agreement between the major parties that the elections should take place as scheduled on January 8 despite street violence and political turmoil triggered by Thursday’s assassination of Ms Bhutto in a gun and suicide attack.

The Election Commission is due to announce today whether the polling will be delayed.

The PPP’s decisions were made at a closed-door meeting of the party’s central executive committee.

Bilawal Zardari, a student with no experience in politics, said he would remain at Oxford, leaving his father, who was officially designated co-chairman, as the effective leader of the country’s largest political party.

Supporters chanted “Benazir, princess of heaven” and “Bilawal, move ahead. We are with you.”

Ms Bhutto’s grandfather was a senior figure in the Pakistan Muslim League, the party that helped Pakistan split from India and lead it to independence in 1947. Her father – Pakistan’s first elected prime minister – founded the party in 1967 and its electoral success since then has largely depended on the Bhutto name.

Bilawal said his father would “take care” of the party while he continued his studies. Mr Zardari then told reporters to direct questions to him, saying his son was at a “tender age”.

Mr Zardari, who spent eight years in detention on corruption charges in Pakistan before his release in late 2004, is a key powerbroker in the party who served as environment minister in Ms Bhutto’s second government.

He has denied the charges of large-scale fraud during his wife’s rule.

Following claims and counter-claims over how Ms Bhutto was killed, Mr Zardari appealed to the United Nations and British Government to help investigate the crime.

The government has blamed an al Qaeda-linked militant for the murder, but her party disputes that and claims elements in the Pakistan Muslim League – the ruling party that supports President Pervez Musharraf – could have been behind the murder.

Mr Zardari repeatedly called the ruling party the “killer league”.

He also rejected as “lies” the government’s account of how his wife died, amid a dispute over whether she sustained fatal gunshot wounds or was killed by the force of the suicide blast that struck her vehicle as she left a campaign rally.

Ms Bhutto was buried without a post-mortem examination and the debate over her cause of death has undermined confidence in the government.

The government said yesterday it did not need help in investigating the assassination.

Originally published by Newsquest Media Group.

(c) 2007 Herald, The; Glasgow (UK). Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning. All rights Reserved.