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ISLAMABAD - Pakistani electoral officials will decide later today whether to go ahead with a January 8 poll, with expectations it will be delayed by up to two months after Benazir Bhutto's killing.
The opposition leader's assassination on Thursday has triggered bloodshed across Pakistan and rage against President Pervez Musharraf, casting doubts on nuclear-armed Pakistan's stability and its transition to civilian rule.
Western nations appealed for calm and sporadic violence erupted in the southern city of Hyderabad. Bhutto's Pakistan People's Party said it would take part in the elections despite the loss of its leader.
A spokeswoman said any postponement would help the PPP's opponents. The other main opposition party said it would also take part despite earlier threats of a boycott.
A former ruling party official said the election was likely to be delayed for up to two months but Musharraf opponents said postponement would deliver a political advantage to his supporters.
Pakistan, a US ally against terrorism, is gripped by fears of capital flight if security worsens. Shares on Monday fell nearly five per cent on the Karachi stock market, their steepest drop in 18 months, while the rupee hit a six-year low.
Violence flared again on Monday, with protesters firing into the air in the southern city of Hyderabad and throwing stones at police and shops. Storefronts were damaged in nearby Nawabshah, the home town of Bhutto's widower.
"The loss to public property and infrastructure has been colossal," the caretaker government said in a statement after a cabinet meeting in Islamabad. The death toll from violence since Bhutto's killing has reached 47.
Former prime minister Nawaz Sharif, leader of the other main opposition party, said it was dropping a plan to boycott the vote and would take part after the PPP decided to participate.
"In my view, there is a dire need today that the People's Party and Sindh should not be left alone," he told a news conference in the eastern city of Lahore.
"Other provinces, particularly Punjab, have to play an important role. Therefore, we are in the election run," said Sharif, whose main support is in Punjab.
He said the government was trying to delay the election for the benefit of Musharraf's allies and called on the president to resign: "Pervez Musharraf and Pakistan cannot go together."
Election Commission secretary Kanwar Dilshad said provincial governments and election commissioners had been told to submit reports on the situation by Monday evening.
A decision on whether to postpone the parliamentary election would be taken on Tuesday, Dilshad said.
The commission said on Saturday its offices in many districts of Sindh province in the south of the country had been burnt and voting material including electoral rolls destroyed.
"Despite this dangerous situation, we will go for elections, according to her will and thinking," said Bhutto widower Asif Ali Zardari, who was made co-chairman of the PPP on Sunday alongside the couple's teenage son, Bilawal.
Zardari said he would not run in the election and would not be a candidate for prime minister but mentioned PPP vice chairman Makhdoom Amin Fahim as a possible candidate.
US State Department deputy spokesman Tom Casey said that if the election could be held in safety "then that's probably what should happen".
"The key here is that there be a date certain for elections in Pakistan. We would certainly have concerns about some sort of indefinite postponement of the elections," Casey said.
"We very much want to make sure that there is a clear date set for the Pakistanis to be able to elect their new government."
Major Pakistani cities stirred back to life on Monday for the first time since Bhutto's assassination, emerging from the unrest that had paralysed trade and commerce.
Karachi, a virtual ghost town at the weekend after rioters burnt shops, banks and cars, began to get back to work.
But there were none of the usual traffic jams in the city of 14 million people. Schools were still closed and many workers remained at home.
Washington had encouraged Bhutto, relatively liberal by Pakistan's standards and an opponent of Islamic militancy.
She returned home from self-imposed exile in October, narrowly escaping a suicide blast that struck her motorcade hours after her arrival. About 140 people died in that attack.
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.
- REUTERS
