Bhutto’s Son Bilawal Appointed Co-Chairman of Former Prime Minister’s Party
NAUDERO, Pakistan - Benazir Bhutto’s 19-year-old son, Bilawal, has been appointed co-chairman, with his father, of the former Prime Minister’s Pakistan People’s Party (PPP). 
The first year history student at Christ Church, Oxford, will return to his studies while his father and Bhutto’s widower, Asif Ali Zardari, effectively runs the party. Benazir Bhutto’s will requested that her husband should take over responsibility for party but he wanted to pass it to his son, a PPP spokesman said.
Makhdoom Amin Fahim, the vice chairman of the party, will be the PPP candidate at Pakistan’s parliamentary elections which the party has today agreed it will contest.
The news came after the party of another former prime minister, Nawaz Sharif, said that it would contest elections if Bhutto’s party did so.
Pakistan’s ruling party said earlier today that the crucial January 8 vote was likely to be postponed by up to four months following the assassination of Benazir Bhutto.
As political maneouvering in the wake of Bhutto’s death picked up pace, Mr Sharif’s Pakistan Muslim League-N party said it would reverse an earlier decision to boycott the vote if Bhutto’s group decided to run in the polls.
The PPP announced its decision to contest the elections after a meeting of 22 senior members of the party at which it was also agreed that Bilawal would share the role of chairman with his father. At a round table beneath a portrait of Benazir Bhutto, Bilawal and Mr Fahim sat side by side.
Tariq Azim, the information secretary of the Pakistan Muslim League-Q, said earlier today that the parliamentary elections would lose credibility if it they are held on January 8, with Bhutto’s party in mourning and other opposition groups apparently intent on boycotting.
He expected authorities to announce a delay within 24 hours.
“How long the postponement will be for will up to the Election Commission,” he told The Associated Press. “I think we are looking at a delay of a few weeks … of up to three or four months.”
Leaders of her Pakistan People’s Party, meanwhile, were meeting today in Bhutto’s ancestral home of Naudero in southern Pakistan. Police struggled to control thousands of mourners outside the meeting, who shouted “Musharraf is a killer!” and called for the separation of Bhutto’s home province of Sindh from the rest of Pakistan.
Since Thursday, unrest has killed at least 44 people and caused tens of millions of dollars of damage. Rioters have destroyed 176 banks, 34 gas stations, 72 train cars, 18 rail stations, and hundreds of cars and shops, the government says. They have also wrecked nine election offices, along with the voter rolls and ballot boxes inside, hampering the printing of ballot slips and the training of poll workers, the election commission said.
The election commission has called an emergency meeting for Monday.
In fresh violence, two men blew themselves up today close to the residence in eastern Pakistan of Ijazul Haq, the former religious affairs minister and senior leader of the ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Q party, said district police chief Zafar Abbas Bukhari. Both men died, but there were no other casualties.
© Copyright 2007 Times Newspapers Ltd.
The start of another corrupt monarchy….just like the Bush Monarchy.
LOL.. I don’t know about the ‘corrupt’ part of the previous statement, but Bhutto’s father was Prime Minister in the 70s, she in the 80s and 90s… and you say this is ‘the start?’
The continuation of a corrupt monarchy is more like it. However, I feel bad for this kid as he probably already is getting death-threats. God protect him.
Ah…democracy inaction.
They’ve learned well.
“Outside of the United States, this is the News people are watching: Benazir Bhutto stated that Osama bin Laden is Dead”
http://www.chycho.com/?q=node/1481
“n the following interview, which took place after the first assassination attempt on Benazir Bhutto when she first returned to Pakistan after eight years in exile, she states that Omar Sheikh murdered Osama Bin Laden. The statement occurs 6 minutes and 10 seconds into the interview.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oIO8B6fpFSQ
By making this statement, Bhutto proved that she was genuine, but unfortunately she also sealed her doom. Even though it is well known that Osama Bin Laden has been dead for a number of years, very few prominent political leaders have had the courage to publicly acknowledge this fact.
Many in power, in the West and the East, have a lot to gain by keeping the myth of Osama Bin Laden alive, which means that they have a lot to lose if leaders such as Benazir Bhutto begin to discredit their propaganda. How unfortunate that a voice speaking a truth such as this has been silenced.
One question does come to mind after watching this interview - How long will Francesco Cossiga, the Former President of Italy, be allowed to stay alive now that he has officially stated that 911 was an inside operation orchestrated by the CIA and Mossad.”
Now that we’ve heard from the grand conspiracy corner, maybe we can get back to discussing the fact that the very presence of the Bhutto regime in Pakistan is nothing more than business as usual. Bhutto tried to ride the tiger’s back, it devoured her. When the PPP stops selling its mass base down the river, they’ll be worth something. In the meantime, we get to watch the spectacle of “democracy” announcing itself in Pakistan as the procession of leadership from family member to family member. Well, that’s the way it’s done in the United States, so why not?
watch the video … Benazir Bhutto states that Osama bin Laden is Dead … funny how some people believe anything that the government tells them even when the opposite is in their face .. the only conspiracy happening is in those that propagate the lies … you can’t get any more real then Benazir Bhutto stating that Osama bin Laden is Dead … crazy that even when this occurs, people think it hasn’t happened … the brainwashing in the US is beyond belief … WOW!
The curse of dynastic ‘democracy’ !
hang on a minute guys……..obl just released an audio tape yesterday, so he can’t be dead……….it was on the bbc….. must be true……
The Taliban will now have another man in their crosshairs. The killing will go on.
carolina why are you assuming the Taliban killed Bhutto … so far Al-Qaeda has denied Bhutto’s killing
http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,21985,22985260-5005961,00.html
Bhutto’s killing is most likely part of the plan to Partition Pakistan and creating the “new map of the middle east”
http://www.chycho.com/?q=node/1480
Here we go again! The Bhutto dynasty continues. The democratic process in Pakistan is the personal property of the Bhuttos. Every chairperson is nominated for life and before his/her departure nominates the next prince/princess to take up the sword. The next time the country is up for sale we shall see what is left of the personal property now called Pakistan.
bilawal is only 19,he is too young,he must be a puppet-head to soothe the savagery.just watched news,showed assassin and bullets.crowds thronged tightly around bhutto.i have never seen a royalist or a leader or even a candidate left that vulnerable in 40 years ! she could have refused to make that kind of showing,until she had security.she moved like a queen on her way to the guillotine,wanting to reserve poise and dignity until the end.it could have been that interview.the inner sanctum of that elite society all know the penalty for telling the sanctum- secrets(that is why the government and the congress all sit with one hand under their butt and the other hand covering their own mouths(too many club-members)..that is what happened to jfk,after his secret societies,secret oaths speech and it is said that is the real story behind the magic flute and mozart and a few historical authors.not a society or club that i want to belong to,i have never been happier to be a peasant!. ..she must have know the clock was ticking and was being used as a living demonstration.a cautionary tale,directed specifically at the other ‘elites’ (leaders)’..
“part of the plan to Partition Pakistan and creating the “new map of the middle east””
Pakistan was created out of nothing. It was a false construct to begin with. It was cobbled together by the rich landlords and muslim elite of pre-independence India to garner political clout and subsequently appropriated by the Army. The Baloch, the Sindhi and the Punjabis are as ethnically different as the Gujaratis and Rajasthanis and Kashmiris.
All the freedom fighters were against it. Gandhi, Gaffar Khan, Maulana Azad, Nehru (initially) and a host of others were against the creation of an independant state based on religion rather than a secular democratic country like India. Despite all the problems, the Indian state has fared much better than its neighbouring sister.
The creation of Bangladesh was a testament to the failure of states based on religious identity in an inherently pluralistic society. The further partition of Pakistan may actually help stabilize the region and thwart American strategic ambitions.
nepotism despots.the family business.reminds me of sweet john kennedy jr.the rumors were flying after his plane went down.a blogger at cd,said john jr. had been planning on going public with the proof against his father’s assassin.another website mentioned that john jr.’s evidence was stored in the kennedy archives,at the bottom of the twin tower.
“first you must learn to smile and to kill,if you want to be like the folk ‘on the hill’” (john lennon,working class hero)
just looked it up,correction”;first you must learn to smile as you kill,if you want to live like the folks on the hill”
father+ son = 15%
Bhutto was set-up to die by Bush Co. They encouraged her to return to Pakistan hoping that what did happen, would. Immediatly Bush announced this was the work of the non-existent
al-Qeada without a shred of evidence. He planted that view-point in the minds of the American sheep just as he planted the untrue idea that Iraq attacked the WTC. It does not matter now what comes out because the idiots heard Bush first and will go on believeing this ridiculous scenario and supporting his murderous policies in the middle east.
And what is the goal of these policies? The same as in Vietnam…to economically and socially waste this area of the world so it will not recover for generations to come.
The corporate puppet masters of Bush Co. don’t care if America “wins” or “loses” in Iraq. They are multi-national and use the armed might of Amerika to carry out their designs.
This is exactly what happened in Vietnam…while it appeared Amerika ran home with its tail between its legs the truth is Vietnam was left in a shambles and has only recently begin to crawl out of the economic hole the US buried them in. And this is only because they have begun accepting “trade” missions, indicating they have had enough and are now willing to play the game properly and give the fat boys their due. Amerika certainly didn’t suffer like the Vietnamese in the post war world. The US went on its happy materialistic way while VN stagnated and its people suffered. Obviously, Vietman’s “victory” was hollow and served them poorly.
This is what is in store for Iraq and its neighbors. Saddam was not playing the game and refused to read the script he was handed after the ‘91 war. Someday, some future president will take the political hit and announce we are pulling out of Iraq but not before the real job is done. We left VN on the same terms we could have had in 1968…but in 68 most of that country was still intact…not so in 73.
Mission accomplished!!
Why all this feeling for the Bhutto’s. Her husband is as big a crook as most of the Bush administration.
Last time she was shipped out of Pakistan he and her husband has over $1 billion in their many scattered bank accounts. A large English oil company set them up in their palace in London.
Her husband set up his own prison where his oppents spent their last days. Her two brothers were killed one in Paris and the other killed in front of his house after he opposed his rule. Her niece on Front Line claims that her aunt had her father, Bhutto’s brother, killed.
This is the family that the Idiot in Chief wanted to go back and run for election. That should have told us something about this women and her husband but the MSP has again fed the public it’s BS and JQ just spoons it in.