Pakistani Politics

CNN released a newer more detailed video of the Bhutto shooting

An angry and deeply wounded Pakistan People’s Party on Sunday decided to fight back under a new leadership, naming the 19-year-old son of Benazir Bhutto, Bilawal Zardari, the chairman of the party and his father Asif Ali Zardari as the co-chairman. Bilawal Zardari was simultaneously renamed Bilawal Bhutto Zardari on the occasion. The party also declared that it would go into the polls on Jan 8 and would resist all attempts to delay them.

“We will take our revenge through the polls as democracy is the best revenge,” Asif Zardari, and earlier Bilawal, quoted the late Benazir Bhutto at a crowded news conference after a five-hour session of the party’s Central Executive Committee chaired by Makhdoom Amin Faheem.

Flanked by Asif Zardari and Makhdoom Amin Faheem, the young Bilawal read out a brief statement, in confident tones, surprising the national and international media, accepting the unanimous CEC decision to become the party chairman in place of his mother.

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The battle lines have been drawn. The post-Benazir Bhutto Pakistan People’s Party has set its targets clear and has immediately moved in for the kill.

Asif Ali Zardari, the co-chairperson and the virtual kingmaker in the post-Benazir Pakistan People’s Party, in his joint press conference with the newly-appointed party chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari and Makhdoom Amin Faheem on Sunday, was clearly in a defiant mood.

Without naming anyone, he did not mince words while making his intentions quite evident that it was not only the prime minister’s office but also the Presidency where the PPP would have its men as soon as it won the elections.

He talked of a Pakistani Gorbachev but did not name him, who in Zardari’s view was working against the integrity of Pakistan, and resolved that the PPP with the support of the masses would not let him go.

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Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) will decide tomorrow about the fate of the January 8 general elections in the country, following the receipt of reports from other provinces.

“We have called for reports from the provincial governments and provincial election commissioners on the situation. The reports will reach here by evening today and we will decide tomorrow,” commission secretary Kanwar Dilshad told reporters.

Earlier, an important meeting of ECP was held to mull over holding of general elections, headed by Chief Election Commissioner Justice (rtd) Qazi Mohammed Farooq.

Commission members Justice Nasim Sikandar, Justice Ahmed Khan Lashari and other high officials attended the meeting.

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Three shots, then blast,New video shows former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto with her head out of a sunroof, then three shots and a blast

Just a few hours before her assassination on Thursday Benazir Bhutto informed Afghan President Hamid Karzai about threats to her life. She was also warned that her meeting with Karzai, just a few days before the Jan 8 elections, could also create more troubles for her.

She was advised to avoid meeting Karzai because some extremists will have another opportunity to declare that a ‘Pakistani American agent’ met an ‘Afghan American agent’ but she ignored all the concerns raised by her close associates.

Sources present in the last Karzai-Benazir meeting revealed that the Afghan President prayed for her safety and in return she responded that “life and death is in the hands of Allah and that is why I have the courage to stare in the eyes of death without any fear”.

During her last working lunch at her Islamabad residence on Thursday, her Security Adviser Rehman Malik expressed some concerns about her security in Rawalpindi. He was worried about why his leader was not provided with signal jammers by the police on that day.

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Many chanted for justice and blamed the government for their heroine’s death. Others consoled each other as they wept.

The funeral for slain opposition leader Benazir Bhutto on Friday was filled with the rawest emotions for the hundreds of thousands who converged on her family’s mausoleum here.

People crammed inside the cavernous hall, throwing rose petals on the coffin. Some cried, others chanted “Benazir is alive”, as her body was laid to rest. One man sobbed uncontrollably, crying, “My sister has gone”. Another fainted as several thousand people jostled to get a last glimpse.

Benazir’s son, Bilawal, and her husband Asif Ali Zardari, who wore a traditional white Sindhi cap and appeared composed, helped lift the coffin into the grave.

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President Pervez Musharraf on Thursday strongly condemned the tragic murder of former prime minister Benazir Bhutto in Rawalpindi and expressed the resolve to combat extremists and terrorists till their elimination.

In a message to the bereaved family, he termed the killing of chairperson Pakistan Peopleís Party Benazir Bhutto “a great tragedy” and announced three-day national mourning.

“Today Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto was killed in an attack by a cruel, barbaric terrorist in Liaquat Bagh Rawalpindi … Innalillah-e-wa inna alehe rajaeoon,” the president said in a message telecast on PTV. “This is a great tragedy which I cannot describe in words … I am deeply saddened and I condemn it very strongly,” he said.

The president said: “On this occasion, I condole with the entire family of Ms Bhutto; including Begum Nusrat Bhutto, Asif Zardari and Sanam Bhutto and particularly her children.” “My prayers, my sentiments, and my sympathies are with the children of Mohtarma Bhutto; Bilawal, Bakhtawar and Asifa.” He said his sympathies are also with all those innocent countrymen and their families who fell victim to this heinous crime.

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Former prime minister and PML (N) Quaid Muhammad Nawaz Sharif on Thursday announced boycott of the coming general elections against the killing of PPP Chairperson Benazir Bhutto.

“The PML-N announced to boycott the January 8 elections against the brutal killing of Benazir Bhutto,” Nawaz Sharif said while addressing a press conference at the residence of party leader Raja Ashfaq Sarwar late at night. He also said that Pervez Musharraf was the root-cause of all problems being faced by the country as fair and free elections were not possible till he is in power. He also demanded that Pervez Musharraf should immediately quit as the federation of Pakistan was facing threats in his presence.

“It is time to heal the wounds of Sindh and save the federation from collapse,” he said. PML-N leaders Raja Zafarul Haq and Makhdoom Javed Hashmi were also present on the occasion. The former prime minister also gave call for complete strike on Friday and three days mourning.

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