Pakistani Prime Minister Mohammed Mian Soomro said here Friday
that there was no decision yet to delay the general elections
scheduled on January 8.
"Right now the elections stand where they were," he told a news
conference. "We will consult all the political parties to take any
decision about it. I'm ready to meet them right now."
Soomro made the remarks a day after former Prime Minister
Benazir Bhutto was killed in a blast at her party's election rally
in a park near the capital Islamabad.
On Bhutto's assassination, Soomro said that inquiry had been
ordered.
"We can't blame anyone now," he said. "People must be calm."
He also disclosed that five policemen were among those killed in
the suicide attack.
On Thursday night, President Pervez Musharraf directed Soomro to
convene All-Parties Conference on the elections.
The Pakistan People's Party (PPP) Thursday demanded complete
inquiry into the assassination of their leader.
"We demand complete investigation as to who were behind the
attack," PPP deputy chief Makhdoom Amin Faheem told a news
conference in Islamabad.
"Bhutto family and the party should be informed about the
investigation," Faheem said.
He said that the PPP had decided to observe a 40-day
mourning.
"We are in the shock and we are mourning," the PPP leader said
when asked if his party would now take part in the Jan. 8
elections.
He said that U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice phoned him
and conveyed condolences on behalf of her government.
Faheem was sitting in the car with Bhutto when the attacker
fired three shots and later blast was carried out.
"Benazir was hit as she waved to the workers who were chanting
slogans in her favor. If Benazir did not go out of the car, she
would be saved," he said.
Fahem said that Bhutto sat in the car after the firing and the
blast and then she fell down in the car and died.
Meanwhile, according to local press reports, PPP supporters went
on streets chanting anti-government slogans and burned tyres in
protest in major cities of Pakistan like Rawalpindi, Karachi,
Peshawar and Quetta.
At least 10 people were killed and dozens wounded in fierce
clashes, the interior ministry said.
"The death toll in the unrest after Bhutto's death is 10, mostly
in Sindh province," ministry spokesman Javed Cheema said.
He said dozens of people had been wounded in the violence, which
hit several cities across the country.
(Xinhua News Agency December 28, 2007)
