Bilawal Bhutto Zardari on Thursday launched the Pakistan People's Party's election campaign in a low-key manner, invoking the legacy of the Bhutto family and calling on people to back the party in the May 11 election. Addressing a gathering of hundreds of PPP leaders and workers in the Bhutto family's traditional stronghold of Naudero in Sindh province, Bilawal listed the achievements of his grandfather Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto.
People across Pakistan on Sunday paid tributes to slain former premier Benazir Bhutto and offered special prayers on the second anniversary of her assassination even as her close aides called on the PPP-led government to identify and bring her killers to justice.
According to the Constitution, a person has be at least 25 years old to become a member of the Parliament. Thus, Bilawal is ineligible to be the chairperson of the PPP. Under the law, he cannot hold any party position till he turns 25.
Bhutto's husband Asif Zardari and her three children, who arrived in Islamabad late on Thursday night, had a brief chance to see the body before the plane left for Sukkur near Lakarna.
Zardari explained to journalists who met him in Bhutto's ancestral village of Naudero that he, like the Congress President, wanted to take a back seat and let the Pakistan People's Party (PPP) leadership decide things.
Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf has no plans to visit slain former premier Benazir Bhutto's ancestral village to offer condolence to her family, but her party has said he would not be welcome even if he were to come.
Addressing a crowded press conference, Bilawal, flanked by Zardari and Fahim, said that he would continue the struggle to restore democracy in Pakistan with as much vigour as his mother desired. Now that he was the leader, PPP's "long and historic struggle for democracy will continue with new vigour," Bilawal said, adding, "My mother always said that democracy is the best revenge".
Seeking to lower temperatures, Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari on Saturday said Pakistan is not talking of war or vengeance and that dialogue is the solution for all issues in the region.
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