Pakistan poll delay seen as Benazir's party meets

Islamabad: Benazir Bhutto's party was meeting to discuss a successor to the slain Pakistani opposition leader on Sunday, as a senior official of the former ruling party said an election due in little over a week was likely to be delayed.

Benazir's assassination in a suicide attack on Thursday has stoked violence and thrown into doubt the January 8 election, deepening the crisis in the important US ally against terrorism as it struggles to emerge from military rule.

"It seems more than likely that elections will be delayed," Tariq Azim Khan, a senior official of the Pakistan Muslim League (Q) party, said.

The party backs President Pervez Musharraf and ruled until a caretaker government was set up last month. Khan said he expected a six to eight week postponement.

Anger against President Pervez Musharraf burns strongly among Benazir supporters and since her death sporadic violence has erupted, boosting fears about nuclear-armed Pakistan's stability.

Pakistan's stocks are expected to tumble on Monday following the political turmoil and violence, which threaten to scare off foreign investors and damage the economy.

Karachi, Pakistan's biggest city, financial capital and main port, has been paralysed by a spasm of street violence.

Shops have been shuttered, petrol stations closed and railways attacked by angry mobs, bringing transport to a standstill.

The death toll from the violence has reached 47. Streets in Karachi were generally quiet and deserted on Sunday, witnesses said, though a disabled man was burned to death when a petrol station was set on fire.

Sahid Khan, assistant manager at a downtown hotel, said he had to walk two and a half hours to get to work for lack of transport.

"Things are very difficult because of the blast that killed Benazir. Elections should be delayed by say three months," he said.

"All parties, leaders ... need more time to prepare."

Benazir's Pakistan People's Party has dismissed the government statement that al-Qaeda killed her, saying Musharraf's embattled administration was trying to cover up its failure to protect her.

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Without the charismatic Benazir, 54, whose family dynasty's history is intertwined with Pakistan's, her party is in disarray.

Her 19-year-old son, Bilawal, is to read her will on Sunday but even if it names him as her political successor, the Oxford law student is seen as too young to immediately lead, and her husband Asif Ali Zardari would likely be the de facto chief.

Otherwise the choice of a successor most likely lies between Zardari, and Benazir's top aide, Makhdoom Amin Fahim.

Election

The party leadership meeting in Benazir's home town of Naudero in southern Pakistan - where her will was also to be read - must decide as well whether to contest the election if it goes ahead.

Former prime minister Nawaz Sharif's opposition party has said it would boycott the election and has been trying to convince Benazir's PPP to do likewise.

So far the government has not announced any decision to call off or postpone the vote, but the Election Commission said it was planning an emergency meeting on Monday.

"They should postpone the election, as a mark of respect," Greg Turner, 50, an account manager at Siemens Pakistan, said on Sunday on his way to church.

"I think it's crucial elections are held. They are essential for democracy itself and the integrity of Pakistan. But a delay is inevitable," said Turner, among the two per cent of Pakistanis who are Christian in the overwhelmingly Islamic nation.

Although US President George W Bush has urged Pakistanis to hold the vote, a White House spokesman said it was up to Pakistan's authorities to determine the timing.

Washington had encouraged Benazir, relatively liberal by Pakistan's standards and an opponent of Islamic militancy.

She returned home from self-imposed exile in October, hoping to become prime minister for the third time.

Her death wrecked US hopes of a power-sharing deal between her and Musharraf, who took power in a military coup in 1999 but left the army last month to become a civilian president.

Many PPP leaders are from Benazir's land-owning feudal class, yet the party has a big following among the poor.

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"Ludicrous" death theory?

A close aide who prepared Benazir's body for burial dismissed as "ludicrous" a government theory she died after hitting her head on a sunroof during the suicide attack.

A party spokesman said she was shot in the head. A Pakistani television channel broadcast on Sunday grainy still pictures of what it said appeared to be two men who attacked and killed Benazir, one firing a pistol.

Interior Ministry spokesman Javed Iqbal Cheema said the government's version, backed by a doctor who treated Benazir, was based on a medical report and other evidence collected from the scene of the attack.

"If the People's Party's leadership wants, her body can be exhumed and post-mortemed. They are most welcome," he added.

The PPP has said the government must also show hard evidence al-Qaeda is to blame.

The accused al-Qaeda-linked militants have denied any role, although others issued threats against Benazir when she returned in October.

A suicide attack on her motorcade then killed more than 150 people.

Although early reports on Sunday suggested the country was relatively quiet after the previous days' violence, two suspected suicide bombers were killed in central Punjab province when the devices they carried exploded prematurely in an apparent botched attack on a former minister, police said.

A promising investment story less than a year ago, Pakistan is now gripped by fears of capital flight if security worsens.

"If the situation prolongs, there will be capital outflows and we will probably see (the) Dubai market doing well because there is money flowing from Pakistan," said Shoaib Memon, chief executive of Al Falah Securities, owned by the Abu Dhai Group, one of the largest foreign investors in Pakistan.

Some Pakistanis would like to leave the country as well. In Karachi on Sunday, hotel assistant manager Khan said: "Every six months there's a problem here. Most Pakistanis would like to work outside the country. There are blasts, crimes, too much!"