Pakistan Elections Discussion Forum

The party of assassinated Pakistan opposition leader Benazir Bhutto named her 19-year-old son as its new leader Sunday and announced it would contest general elections set for January 8.


“My mother always said that democracy is the best revenge,” Bilawal Bhutto told a chaotic press conference in the family’s ancestral home in southern Pakistan.

At an emergency party meeting here, officials also named Bhutto’s husband, Asif Ali Zardari, as co-chairman to assist Bilawal.

Zardari called for a United Nations inquiry into the circumstances of his wife’s slaying Thursday in a gun and suicide bomb attack as she left a campaign rally ahead of the parliamentary vote.

“We have decided to go for elections,” he said, appealing to Nawaz Sharif, Bhutto’s chief opposition rival who had announced a boycott, to rejoin a vote seen as a key step in Pakistan’s transition to civilian democracy.

Sharif’s party responded immediately and positively, with a spokesman telling AFP: “We will contest the election.”

Bhutto’s assassination stunned the nuclear-armed nation and left a void at the heart of her Pakistan People’s Party, the country’s largest.

It also triggered a wave of street violence that has left at least 38 dead and which has seen protesters clash repeatedly with police and torch hundreds of banks, shop, offices, railway stations, trains and vehicles.

The PPP’s participation in the election could restore much-needed stability, although the electoral commission will convene Monday to decide whether the polls can still go ahead in the wake of the unrest.

Bilawal Bhutto, a student at Britain’s Oxford University, was named party chairman after a marathon meeting of senior officials, but he is a political novice.

It means the leadership is following the bloodline for a third generation, some four decades after it was founded by his grandfather Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto, a former prime minister ousted and later hanged by the military.

“The party’s long and historic struggle for democracy will continue with a new vigour,” Bilawal told reporters.

Zardari, 51, is a much more controversial figure who is nicknamed “Mr. Ten Percent” over allegations about kickbacks under his wife’s premiership, and who spent eight years in jail here.

Political commentator Najam Sethi said Zardari would “run the show to keep the place warm” for Bilawal, like India’s Sonia Gandhi has done for her son Rahul.

Certainly Zardari was very much in charge at the press conference, refusing to let Bilawal take any more questions at one point.

“He may be our chairman but he is my son, and he is at a tender age. We are all in mourning,” he said.

PPP vice president Makhdoom Amin Fahim and its Punjab leader Makhdoom Shah Mahmood Qureshi will sit on an “advisory council,” party officials said.

Its a good move by People's Party to nominate Bilawal Bhuto Zardari as the Chairman of the PPP after an addition to his name. I m sure that a time will come when people will forget the name at the end and he would be known as Bilawal Bhutto. It was observed during last 4 days that people living in Larkana (Naudero) can sacrifice their lives for Bhutto family without even a single thought and during press conference they were calling him as Bilawal Bhutto as he is the image of her mother just like Shaheed Benazir was the image of her father.

Well politically it seems to be a correct and sharp move but ethically i am not sure. Here we have number of leaders who have sacrificed alot for PPP but at the end of day they just bring a new face in the party and tell him to lead. This is not democratic at all.
But yes it is a good move and will keep the party intact in near future. It is a surprise move and lets hope that this kid changes the Pakistan politics by bringing the new and fresh ideas.

Yes you are very right that its undemocratic move. But to keep the PPP vote bank attach to the party it was necessary. You know Zardari is quite doubtful personality and some of the major party leaders dont consider him good for leading party. And if he is gonna hold the chairmanship of the party it may divided into some small parties that will hurt democratic process. At the moment PPP is the largest pary of the country and if it is broken down then we will have the government of allies like PML-Q that is nothing but rubber stamp parliament.

A question could be raised how we can expect that PPP would be good governance for the countary? I believe only one thing that best governance system is democracy so if a political government would be failed to achieve the goals they themselves have set for their tennure in the manifesto they would not be able to sit in the parliament in the next term. Public is the most suitable and effective accountability bureau for political parties so they should be given the opportunity to test the parties as per their aspirations and standards.
This is not democratic at all.




Yes you are exactly right that name of Bhutto family is important for asking vote because they have sacrificed their lives for the country and people honour them just like God and Goddess.

This is not fair with the Bhutto family. The actual right for party leadership is of Junior Zulifiqar Ali Bhutto( The Grand son of Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto).

Asif Ali Zardari changed not only his and his childrens name but also changed the cast. He announced the news cast as Bhutto Zardari. This is clearly occupation on party leadership. The actual blood of the Bhutto family is Junior Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto and Fatima Bhutto.
So in my point of view the party leadership should go to the Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto's Blood.

Well yes this point will be under lot of discussions in the near future. But I believe that since Murtaza was not part of main PPP so his son or daugher right now cannot claim to be a part of the main PPP.
Since the people were in last few years fully dedicated to Benazir Bhutto, so I think they will accept some thing relating to Benazir only.
We have to remember that Murtaza and his family were never allies of Benazir.
Lets keep this discussion open and we will be hearing alot about this in next few months

Lets go to past for this ! Mir Murtaza Bhutto actully started to follow the campaign of his father Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto. But as the BB was one who spent more time with Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto because she was elder in all brothers and sister. This is the fact that there must be some reason due which at that time government exiled her. I think she was the only one who spoke against dictatorship infavor of her fathers policies.

So when she came after the exile, she received a very good response due to both reason one social as she was the daughter of Z.A.bhutto and second she was exiled due to follow her fathers policies.

This is also one of the facts that Mir Murtaza also followed the policies but didn't get public response in good. His pary name is also PPP(Shaheed Bhutto) group.

And you know the Mir Murtaza was murdered in the BB's government. So how can his children be with Asif Ali Zardari or BB.

It is acceptable till Mohterma but now after Mohterma the right for party leadership is Junior Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto

Zulfiqar Bhutto basically trained his daughter to lead the nation. She is the one went with her father to Shimla on the highly national and governmental visit when she was only 21. It shows how he trained his daughter for leading the party. If you will go through the life history of BB you will come to know that her education was more political kind then anything else.

It was the training of Bhutto that she appeared as the competetor for a dictator just after the demise of her father. She was exiled for the reason that to motivate general public against dictatorship. At that time Murtaza Bhutto wasnt that much politically established and even his father never shown interest to stablize him as political leader.

You must know Bhutto wrote a book during his imprisonment "My Dearest Daughter" y not he wrote "My Dearest Son"....? That all was the ground made her the successor of the Bhutto rather then a son that is considered more rightful.




No he didnt followed the policies of his father and even if he followed his show was entirely different. He was the person having 4 or 5 gunmen around him all the time and you must know the real power of the PPP is in the public so while you are not publicly open person you can not get their vote of confidence. On the contrary BB was always so open without any bodyguard she used to visit the home of locals in the area without any protocole and all that made her really a great public figure.




Yes he was murdered by Police in the regime of BB but no evidence has been found that it was done by BB but only rumours surrounds. Every logical mind should understand that y she would be killing her brother....?
If it was for power then its a lame excuse caz she was holding the chair of the party and no one was against her chairmanship. She was politically much more stronger then Murtaza Bhutto so no reason was to murder him.
If someone thinks its for money then its again illogical caz she had sufficient resources and money alongwith power so she wasnt in need of it.




Here you are giving biased opinion. Just think for a moment that y party leadership should go to Junior Zulfiqar....? caz his parents given him the name of Zulifiqar Ali Bhutto....?

Let me tell you some of the basic logics;

• Z.B made PPP but it would be weaken if BB havnt taken the charge of it
  
• BB raised the number of follower to greater extent even more to the previous time
  
• If BB as a daughter of Z.B can hold the party chairmenship then y not her son...?
  
• BB lead the party as being the daugther of Z.B the same way Bilawal would lead the party as being the sone of BB
  

Yes if you are talking about democracy I m with you that its undemocratic move but if you are talking about Murtaza family then its another wrong just like appointment of Bilawal Bhutto as Chairman of the PPP.

Yes, one understandably has questions about Zardari.
Also, the selection of the new leader of the PPP is not democratic at all so what does this tell us about the future of democracy in Pakistan if and when the PPP is elected.

I personally think Aitzaz Ahsan would have been a great leader for the PPP.
What is your view?

Yes its undemocratic but we have to tolerate ground realities. We havent learnt the ABC of democracy yet then how we can speak the language of democracy at such an initial stage...?

First let the political parties rule the countries and even if they are not working good let them work because once a government completes its term not like rubber stamp government of PML-Q but independently then they have to appear in the court of public and they will kick them off if they were not according to their claims. So let our people decide what they think better for themselves.

If political parties are ruling the country they will be strong then "Lota-ism" will die its death because then elections would be party based not personality based.

So first we have to grow a culture for democracy then things would be aright with passage of time. Revolutions are never made in seconds, years and years make ground for it and then sudden burst up design a new history.




No doubt he is born leader but as I have told you that democracy grows in the lap of political parties not in the lap of political personalities. At the moment Bhutto family is a pole of gravitation for PPP thus most suitable leader is Bilawal Bhutto as he is the son of Benazir Bhutto.