Asif Zardari has dismissed the government claims on Al-Qaida involvement in Benazir’s assassination, accusing officials of a cover-up and comparing it to the death of John F. Kennedy.

“I think soon the chickens are going to lay their eggs and we will blame them on Al-Qaida,” he told the Guardian at the family home in Naudero. “Al-Qaida has nothing to fear; why would they fear us? Are they our political opponents?” he said.

New evidence raised fresh doubts about the government’s version of Bhutto’s death. Fresh video footage appeared to show that she died last Thursday from an assassin’s bullet and not, as the interior ministry said, from a blow to the head in the force of a bomb explosion.

As wailing mourners continued to arrive at the family estate, Zardari outlined how he intended to “groom” the couple’s son Bilawal for his new role as party leader. The 19-year-old Oxford undergraduate was appointed chairman of Bhutto’s Pakistan People’s party on Sunday. However, power will remain with a committee of regents, headed by his father, until his education is completed.

But he was cagey about the fresh-faced teenager’s exact role in the campaign, saying only that Bilawal “may address a few rallies, or something like that”. Security will be a major concern, as a new bulletproof jeep parked outside the front door suggested.

“We’ll try and expose him to the minimum,” said Zardari, declining to give further details. He defended the decision to appoint such an inexperienced youngster to such a perilous position, if only symbolically, insisting it was crucial to the stability of the party and country.

“The party has gone into a very aggressive mode,” he said. “People are talking about breaking the country, of forgetting democracy. [They are saying] ‘We’ve had enough of these generals, let’s go for all-out war’. In order to keep that cohesiveness, to channel that anger into a democratic force, one has to give them a symbol that belongs to her ... That would give them a new hope. That is the reason.”

Bilawal read Bhutto’s political will to the party leadership on Sunday. Zardari admitted that she had not named her son as a successor, she specified Zardari, but he believed it was “part of her legacy”.

“I’m sure she would have it in her mind that one day her children would inherit a better kind of Pakistan, not this kind of volatile and violent one - a better Pakistan.”

Zardari has an unenviable reputation in Pakistan, widely known as “Mister Ten Per cent” since his stint as minister for investment in the mid 1990s, when his lavish lifestyle attracted corruption allegations that have refused to go away.

The Election Commission on Tuesday again deferred final decision on the general election by Wednesday. EC secretary Kanawar Dilshad told newsmen after commission’s meeting, the third in 24 hours, that it has been decided to take major political parties into confidence before making a final decision.

“It looks impossible to hold elections on January 8,” Dilshad said adding: “The elections can be delayed.” He said major political parties were being briefed on the prevailing law and order situation in the country and particularly mentioned 13 districts of Sindh where army has been moved to restore peace.”

“The EC will hold another meeting on Wednesday and a decision is expected then,” he said

The EC is reportedly considering putting off the elections to the second week of February, at the earliest. The advent of Muharram, often a month of sectarian turbulence, will weigh in fixing the new date after it is over.

As another indication of certain delay, the Presidency announced on Tuesday that President Pervez Musharraf would address the nation on Wednesday at 8 pm. Musharraf is likely to explain the factors leading to the delay. He is also expected to dilate on raging controversy over the circumstances surrounding Benazir Bhutto’s assassination and conflicting versions given by the government.

The Pakistan People’s Party and Nawaz Sharif faction of the Pakistan Muslim League (PML-N) rejected the move to postpone the elections terming it as an attempt to save the pro-Musharraf PML-Q from certain rout in view of backlash of Bhutto’s killing. Sharif talked to PPP co-chairperson Asif Zardari and both agreed to coordinate their response to the postponement.

Zardari has convened a meeting of central executive committee of the party in Naudero on Wednesday to discuss the evolving situation. PPP insists that the elections be held as scheduled on January 8 hoping it can ride the sympathy wave to register a major win.

The CEC and candidates of the pro-Musharraf PML-Q also met here in a lengthy session to review the prevailing political situation and its dwindling electoral prospects. The majority of participants said the party needed time to recoup from current slide that has accelerated in the wake of massive countrywide reaction to Bhutto’s assassination.

Dilshad said the political parties would be asked for their inputs in light of the damages to the election machinery caused by the recent riots. He said the EC has received recommendations from the provincial governments to take into consideration to the rituals of the month of Muharram also. 

London, January 1
Bilawal Bhutto, thrust into the political spotlight by the assassination of his mother in Pakistan, can count on support from at least one source — female Facebook fans who describe him as ‘hot’.

“Oh My God he’s cute!” said one contributor to “Let’s not assassinate Bilawal Bhutto because he’s hot, ok?,” a new group on the social networking site after the 19-year-old was named last week to succeed his mother as leader of the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP).

“Oh God, I totally agree. He’s so sexy,” added another member of the group, which so far had 48 members. The Oxford undergraduate, who attended his mother Benazir Bhutto’s funeral on last Friday, reveals a few things about himself on his own Facebook site, describing his political views as ‘liberal’.

“What’s Islamic extremism? It’s strict adherence to a particular interpretation of seventh century Islamic law as practiced by the prophet Mohammed, and when I say ‘strict adherence’, I’m not kidding around.”

“Men are forced to pray, wear their beards a certain length. Among my favorites is there’s only one acceptable cheer at a football match: Allah-hu-Akbar. God is great.”

“If your guys are getting creamed, then you’re on your own,” he wrote on his Facebook site, which says he has 315 friends. Bilawal, who is due to return to his studies in Oxford this month, lists his hobbies as cricket, swimming, squash and shooting, his favourite TV shows include ‘The Simpsons’ and top filmmakers Michael Moore and Quentin Tarantino.

Other details are revealed by online friends: the Guardian daily printed a picture of him in fancy dress as the devil at a Halloween Party with red horns and a trident. “We’re ready to bring hell on earth ... mwaaahahahahahah,” he reportedly added in a comment appended to the photo, posted by a friend. Other Facebook groups focused on the teenager, whose nomination raised some eyebrows among critics of the dynastic system, include ‘Support Bilawal Bhutto Zardari’, and another named: ‘Bilawal Bhutto Zardari? Where’d he come from?’ — AFP

Karachi, January 1
Bhutto’s 19-year-old son Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, appointed chairman of her Pakistan People’s Party on Sunday after her murder in Rawalpindi last Thursday, left for Dubai on an Emirates flight with his sisters Bakhtawar, and Aseefa.

“The three reached Karachi on a domestic flight from Sukkur this afternoon and then boarded the Emirates flight for Dubai,” an airport official told Reuters.

Sukkur, a town in the interior of the southern province of Sindh, has the closest airport to the Bhutto ancestral home in Larkana district, where Bhutto was buried on Friday.

Bilawal, a student of Oxford University, is expected to be given 24-hour protection when he returns to his studies in Britain.

Officers from Scotland Yard’s Diplomatic Protection Group will carry out a risk assessment and talk to officials in the PPP, which 19-year-old Bilawal Bhutto Zadari now leads, to decide what level of protection he should receive.

Protection for the new leader could range from a panic alarm and special security measures, including sensors, being installed in his student accommodation to round the clock protection by armed officers in the DPG.

“Clearly if a specific threat is made against him, then security will be massively increased,” a security source was quoted as saying.

Bilawal is a first year history student at Christ Church, Oxford, and he is due to start the next academic term on January 13. — Reuters/UNI

Nairobi, January 1
Diplomatic pressure mounted today on Kenya’s political leaders to stem the violence that has engulfed the country in the wake of disputed presidential elections, claiming nearly 260 lives.

A second consecutive night of tribal conflict and clashes between the police and protesters left more than 70 dead, with no end in sight to the unrest that has plunged one of Africa’s more stable democracies into an unprecedented and crippling crisis.

World leaders called on Kenya’s rival leaders to open a dialogue, but Raila Odinga, the opposition candidate defeated in the December 27 poll by incumbent President Mwai Kibaki, today refused to negotiate until Kibaki owned up to vote-rigging allegations and stepped down.

“I have asked my people to be peaceful, to desist from acts of hooliganism or thuggery, but to continue to protest peacefully, which is what we call the act of civil disobedience until President Kibaki agrees to hand over power,” Odinga said in an interview with the BBC.

His charges of fraud were lent extra weight by the EU team monitoring the elections which issued a report today saying the vote had ‘fallen short’ of international standards and called for an independent audit into the results.

“It is vital that an impartial investigation into the accuracy of the presidential results is conducted,” chief EU observer Alexander Graf Lambsdorff told reporters. — AFP

Kibaki kinsmen flee homes

GONDI: Groups of President Mwai Kibaki’s Kikuyu tribe are fleeing burning homes and reprisal attacks to take refuge in fields and mosques from ethnic clashes following his controversial re-election.

Some of the fighting has pitted Luos from the west of the country who support opposition challenger Raila Odinga against Kikuyus from Kibaki's central Kenyan homeland.

John Wanyoike said he and his family escaped from Narok town, 120 km west of Nairobi, when rampaging youths torched homes there belonging to his kinsmen. — Reuters

Dhaka, January 1
Workers in 139 factories in Bangaldesh’s national capital Dhaka and Chittagong and Khulna cities get round the year medical attention right at their work stations. A Marie Stopes initiative, this facility costs a worker only 14 taka a month. In return, he can avail almost four consultations a month for ailments of skin, eye and general health problems.

The system is well coordinated between factory managements and Marie Stopes Clinic Society (MSCS), a partner of Marie Stopes International. While a majority of the beneficiaries are women working in garment factories including 91 in Dhaka and 44 in Chittagong, those working in four fish processing factories in Khulna are also covered by the scheme. The NGO gets its total payment from each factory at the end of the month. Ready to wear garments contribute to a chunk of Bangladesh’s export earnings. “Seventy five per cent of our exports are in garments,” says Dr Yasmin H. Ahmed, managing director of Marie Stopes in Dhaka.

The NGO’s programme officer Dr Farzana Amin whose job also includes looking after three referral clinics in Dhaka and one in Khulna, told TNS that most workers who work in 8 to 12 hour shifts suffer from postural defects such as lower abdominal pain besides head ache, poor vision, nutritional problems and urinary tract infections. “We have devised a health card scheme in partnership with the factory owners to address the poor heath of the workers and their minimal access to family planning. A permanent health card is given to each worker for only 14 taka. The card enables the worker to access services on family planning and consultation and treatment for problems related to reproductive and sexual health at any of our 39 referral centres across Bangladesh. Earlier, we had a partnership with more than 190 factories. Due to closure of factories, we are now catering to the health needs of 139 factories.”

Workers in these factories acknowledge that the Marie Stopes intervention is more frequent and thorough compared to the health care arrangement made by the management. Hasina Begum, a worker in Shirt Makers Ltd. (SML), Chittagong says, “We have been receiving health care service from Marie Stopes for the last two years. Before Marie Stopes stepped in, the management would hire the services of doctors who would visit our unit once a month and give us prescriptions. The involvement of Marie Stopes includes a value addition of free medicines along with the prescription. We can also avail consultation for family planning methods and treatment for gynaecological problems from referral clinics. Besides doctors, a team of Marie Stopes also visit our factories for giving health education.”