Benazir Bhutto had left instructions for future

Benazir Bhutto’s soyem held
LARKANA, Dec 30 : The Soyem of slain Chairperson of PPP Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto, was held on Sunday at Naudero House. Quran Khawani was arranged on the occasion for “Isal-i-Sawab” for the departed soul. An 'Ijtimai Dua' was also offered on the occasion led by Mufti Abdul Rehman Kundhar. Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto's husband Asif Zardari, son, Bilawal, central leadership of the PPP and provincial and AJK chiefs of the party, office bearers and workers as well as thousands of people were present on the occasion. Separate arrangements were made for women at the soyem. Benazir Bhutto's daughters Bakhtawar and Asifa, sister Sanam Bhutto, aunts, office bearers of the PPP women's wing were present. When this report was filed, people are offering condolences to Asif Ali Zardari and Bilawal. The PPP Central Executive Committee will meet at Naudero House this afternoon. The meeting will be chaired by the Senior Vice-Chairman, Makhdoom Amin Fahim. Wreath laid on behalf of COAS: A floral wreath was laid at Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto’s grave on Sunday on behalf of the Chief of the Army Staff (COAS), General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani. Fateha' was also offered for the departed soul.www.dawn.com

PPP chairperson Benzir apparent legal heir will be her Nineteen year old Bilawal may replace his slain mother Benazir Bhutto as chief of
Pakistan Peoples Party.Bhutto had sealed her will that was with her son and two daughters Bakhrtawar and Assefa in Dubai,that will be read by her son Bilawal" on Sunday.

Two high level inquiries have been ordered into death of Late premier Benazir Bhutto as reported in the news.Cheema said that two high-level inquiries ordered - one, judicial and the other by Additional Inspector of General of Police in Punjab. 

The chairman of the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Joseph Biden, has said that the Pakistani government was “indirectly complicit” in Benazir Bhutto’s assassination because it failed to provide adequate security to her.

Mr Biden, who is also a leading presidential candidate, released a letter that he and two Senate colleagues wrote to President Pervez Musharraf at Ms Bhutto’s request to urge him to step up her security.

Dec 29: Shops were shuttered, weddings were cancelled and daily life was on hold for tens of millions of Pakistanis on Saturday as the nation mourned the assassination of former prime minister Benazir Bhutto.

On the second day of official mourning for the slain opposition leader, most people were unable to buy food or petrol, with almost all shops, fuel stations, banks and offices closed down.

The streets of the country’s main cities — Karachi, Islamabad, Rawalpindi, Lahore, Quetta and Peshawar — were largely empty and in many places there were scars from the unrest that has left at least 38 dead since the assassination of Benazir.

Stick-wielding armed gangs roamed the deserted highways of Karachi, the country’s normally teeming economic hub of 12 million people, trying to stop anyone who ventured out of the house.

A Western news agency quoted PPP’s information secretary Sherry Rehman as saying on Saturday that the party would decide whether to take part in the election or not in the Sunday meeting.

Asif Ali Zardari said in an interview that Benazir Bhutto had left instructions about the future of the PPP to be read in the event of her death. This would be made public on Sunday.

Asif Zardari told BBC Radio that his son Bilawal would read out the message.


Mr Zardari also said his wife had made detailed plans for her burial, including changing the location of the plot from his family’s ancestral tomb to her family’s mausoleum following a recent suicide bomb attack.


“She has left a message for the party and she has left a will, so we shall be doing that tomorrow (Sunday) after the third day (of mourning,)” he said.

“We have called for a meeting and her will will be read out there and the instructions she has left will be read out there.”


In reply to a question whether he would succeed her as party leader, Mr Zardari said: “It depends on the party and depends on the will.”

Mr Zardari also spoke about his personal sense of loss.

 The riots however have taken their toll on the country's infrastructure - and on public confidence.
International elections observers who have not already been evacuated are saying there is no way the elections can be held on schedule.

"Because of the violence we have seen, polling stations burned, material destroyed, we cannot even reach all the polling stations and supply them," Michael Gahler of The European Union Observer Mission

The Pakistan People’s Party has said that the investigation into the assassination of former prime minister Benazir Bhutto must be based upon the letter she had written to President Pervez Musharraf before her return to Pakistan.

The letter had named a number of people in an alleged plot to kill the PPP chairperson.

“It (the letter) was a dying declaration,” PPP Senator Latif Khosa told Dawn by phone from Larkana.


He said former Punjab chief minister Pervaiz Elahi, former Sindh chief minister Arbab Ghulam Rahim, Intelligence Bureau chief Ijaz Shah and ex-ISI chief Hameed Gul should be named in the FIR on the basis of that letter.

The police, he said, should have allowed Makhdoom Amin Fahim or Naheed Khan, political secretary to Ms Bhutto, to lodge an FIR. The police had washed the crime scene at the Liaquat Bagh with water to erase the evidence which would have led to the killer(s), he
added.

Mr Khosa said when the whole world watched the assassin shooting Benazir Bhutto with a handgun, the government was busy selling its “skewed stories”. It was trying to convince people that she had hit her head against the lever of the sunroof of the vehicle in a reaction to the suicide blast, he said.