Agencies

Islamabad, Dec 31: Bilawal, the teenage son of the slain Benazir Bhutto, was Sunday picked to head her Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) following her killing as the country was set to choose a new date for elections set for January 8.

In a development mirroring the PPP's desperate need for a Bhutto tag, it announced that Bilawal, a 19-year-old Oxford student, would chair the party with his father Asif Ali Zardari as co-chairman.

The announcement was made after Bhutto's will was read out at Garhi Khuda Bux in her hometown Larkana in Sindh province.

The development came as millions remembered the slain two-time former prime minister in prayers across the country where mob violence following her killing Thursday has left 32 people killed and hundreds injured in street violence.

But the storm over her gory death - with the government insisting she was not killed by gunfire or suicide bomber and the opposition ridiculing the claim - raged for the third day Sunday. To add to Islamabad's woes, US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi called for an international probe into Bhutto's killing.

Both major opposition parties, Pakistan People's Party (PPP) and Nawaz Sharif's Pakistan Muslim League (PML) also decided to run in upcoming elections, apparently ending the threat of a wholesale boycott as Pakistan struggles to move to full democracy after years of military rule. 
 
Benazir's son regrets he couldn't play cricket  

IANS
 
Islamabad: Former Pakistan Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto's son Bilawal, whom she was grooming to step into her shoes, is a black belt in Taekwondo but regrets that he could not play cricket.

Bilawal, who uses his mother's surname, also likes swimming, horse riding, squash and target shooting.

The 19-year-old, currently studying in Oxford, told a local daily in a rare interview three years ago that he will always regret the fact that he could not play cricket because of the "circumstances in which my family had been put".

Bilawal, who was three months old when his mother first became prime minister, spent his childhood in Dubai and London when his mother went into self-imposed exile.

Bhutto always fiercely guarded her children's privacy and kept them away from the prying eyes of the media. Bilawal, the eldest of Bhutto's children, who chose to study at his mother and grandfather's alma mater after finishing his O levels in Dubai, was inconsolable at Bhutto's funeral on Friday.

Bhutto's son, who turned 19 in September, said he knew about the family's legacy and that he had "powerful role models who will obviously influence my career choices when I am older".

On his joining politics, he had said, "We will see, I don't know. I would like to help the people of Pakistan, so I will decide when I finish my studies."

"I can either enter politics, or I can enter another career that would benefit the people," Bilawal said when he was 15.

Like his mother, whom he doted on, Bilawal spoke about Pakistan's problems which he said could be solved if there is democracy in the country. 

 
Kids to Bhutto's Children: You can Share our Mom
PTI

Islamabad: They are too young to understand the political ramifications of former Pakistan premier Benazir Bhutto's assassination, but little children are offering to share their mothers with Bhutto's three teenaged children.
     
Twelve-year-old Uzair would happily share his mother with Bhutto's children -- Bilawal, 19, Bakhtawar, 17 and Asifa, 14, -- so that they are not deprived of their mother's love.

"I can't imagine living without my mother. Benazir's assassin and anyone else who was involved in her killing will be dealt with severely by Allah," Uzair told the Daily Times.
     
Nine-year-old Zain is sad that Bilawal, Bakhtawar and Asifa will never be able to see their mother again.  "I can share my mother with them but she will be very different so they will have to live according to my mother's rules," he said.
      
Zain is also upset at the rioting in the country following Bhutto's assassination in Rawalpindi on Thursday.
      
"My father had campaigned for Benazir during his youth but I don't see him outside burning the city down and stoning innocent people. Instead, he prayed for her and made everyone else in the house pray for her forgiveness," he said.
     
Eight-year-old Omar and his six-year-old brother Osman want Bhutto's children to accompany them to Arena, a children's park in Karachi. "This way they will also cheer up a little bit," said Osman.

Mustafa was very upset when his father told him that Bilawal had fainted on hearing the news of his mother's death. "They should come and live with me and my sister so that our mother can take good care of them," said 7-year-old Mustafa.

"She stays awake all night if either of us is sick. Because she feels sad about Benazir's death she will take more care of Bilawal, Bakhtawar and Asifa than us."