At wake Zardari vows fight to the finish

Pakistan votes for a new parliament and provincial assembly in an election that was delayed until February 18 after Bhutto’s assassination in the garrison town of Rawalpindi on December 27.

While not a presidential election, the outcome could have serious consequences for US ally President Pervez Musharraf, who came to power as a general in a coup in 1999 and is now going through his most unpopular period.

Zardari, who a day earlier scotched talk that he wanted to become prime minister, has not said whether he favoured working with or against Musharraf should the Pakistan People’s Party ride a wave of sympathy to victory in the vote later this month.

The PPP’s likely choice for the premiership is its deputy chairman, Makhdoom Amin Fahim.

About 20,000 people gathered in the village of Garhi Khuda Baksh to pay their last respects to the most charismatic Pakistani politician of the past 20 years.

Chants of Koranic verses and sombre hymns filled the chilly morning air in the dusty village set amid paddy fields in a rural backwater of southern Sindh province.

Before Zardari could enter the tomb, hordes of people forced their way inside chanting “Long Live Bhutto”, some weeping and beating their heads in grief.

“This is the fight between establishment and the people,” Zardari said in a speech imploring Pakistanis to vote for PPP. Moments earlier he had prayed at the rose petal strewn grave in the mausoleum where Bhutto lies alongside her father, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, Pakistan’s first popularly elected prime minister.

Her father was toppled and hanged by the military in the late 1970s, but the PPP still draws on his populist appeal.

“Zulfikar Ali Bhutto laid down his life for his mission and so did his daughter. I myself and the party will take forward this mission,” said Zardari, who spent eight years in jail but was never convicted of corruption charges.

Conspiracy theories still swirl over who was behind the gun and suicide bomb attack that killed Bhutto. Controversy even rages over whether Bhutto was killed by a bullet or by a concussive head injury caused by the bomb detonated after an assassin shot at her from close range.

The PPP named Bhutto’s son, Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, as party chairman and Zardari as co-chairman.