Bhutto's Party to Take Vote Decision, Appoint Chief

[sabbat hunter]

Source: Bloomberg news

The Pakistan Peoples Party will name a new leader today and decide whether to participate in parliamentary elections or call for a postponement following Benazir Bhutto's assassination last week.

Bhutto, who led the party since her father, former Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, was executed in 1979, has named a successor in her will. The will is scheduled to be read out by her son Bilawal today, Bhutto's widower Asif Ali Zardari said yesterday, AAJ television reported.

Benazir Bhutto's assassination has deepened the turmoil in Pakistan, less than two weeks before elections, which the government still intends to hold on Jan. 8. As many as 38 people were killed in two days of rioting across the country as Bhutto supporters took to the streets, burning offices, shops and cars.

Bhutto's son Bilawal, a 19-year-old student at Oxford University, will be named her successor and the new leader of the party, Newsweek reported, citing an unidentified person who has read the will. The Pakistani press has reported that Amin Fahim, the party's vice-chairman, Bhutto's sister Sanam, her widower Zardari or lawyer Chaudhry Aitzaz Ahsan, may also be considered to succeed Bhutto as party chief.

Read more: http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aZEnPArd9Om4&refer=home

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To name her teenage son as a replacement would be a major mistake, as would be naming her husband. Bhutto's husband was the center of corruption charges during her rules as PM of Pakistan.