Naudero, Dec 30: The Pakistan People’s Party on Sunday resolved the potentially explosive succession issue by choosing two-time prime minister Benazir Bhutto’s son Bilawal and allowing her husband Asif Ali Zardari to wield the real power as the teenager’s regent.

The crucial decisions were made at a closed-door meeting of the PPP’s central executive committee where the will of the slain opposition leader, presciently prepared by her two days before her return to the country on Oct 18, was read out by Bilawal and endorsed by top party leaders.

Asif Zardari told DawnNews TV after a press conference at Naudero that the PPP had decided to take part in the elections on Jan 8.

Observers say the PPP decision to contest the upcoming polls is aimed at maximising the massive wave of sympathy across the country for the party that lost its charismatic leader in a gun-and-bomb attack in Rawalpindi on Dec 27.

Nineteen-year-old Bilawal, a student with no experience in politics, said he would remain at Oxford University to continue his studies, leaving his 51-year-old father, who was officially designated co-chairman, to run the party on a day-to-day basis.He was rechristened as Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari to remind party supporters that he belongs to the Bhutto family – one of the most powerful political dynasties in the subcontinent.

Mr Zardari then told reporters to direct questions at him, saying that his son was at a “tender age”.

Mr Zardari, who spent eight years under detention on corruption charges in Pakistan before his release in late 2004, was a key power-broker in the party, especially when his spouse was prime minister.

While then he often proved a political liability to her, he conducted himself admirably at Sunday’s press conference and laid due emphasis on the PPP’s pro-federation stance, pointing out that anti-Pakistan slogans chanted by grief-stricken activists at the funeral did not represent the party’s policy.

He also pointed out that most of Ms Bhutto’s bodyguards who fell in the Dec 27 attacks were from Punjab and had been befriended by him during his stay in jail.

Since Mr Zardari is not contesting the Jan 8 polls, he told newsmen at the press conference that another party leader, Makhdoom Amin Fahim, would be their candidate for prime minister if the party won.

He appealed to the party of former prime minister Nawaz Sharif to drop plans to boycott the polls. He poured scorn on the pro-Musharraf PML-Q, saying repeatedly that it was a “Qatil [killer] league”.

Mr Zardari appealed to the United Nations and the British government to help investigate the Dec 27 assassination of Ms Bhutto – conveniently blamed by the government on a pro-Al Qaeda group. He said the party wanted a UN investigation like the one probing the 2005 assassination of former Lebanese prime minister Rafik Hariri. He said he had denied the government permission for an autopsy, saying he had lived here “long enough to know” how it would have been handled.

He also urged supporters who have rioted across Pakistan since Ms Bhutto was slain to show restraint. “We will avenge the murder of Bhutto through the democratic process after winning the elections,” he said.

Mr Fahim, who along with Punjab PPP president Makhdoom Shah Mahmood Qureshi will sit on an advisory council, told newsmen that according to Ms Bhutto’s will, Mr Zardari was to succeed her. “But Mr Zardari decided that Bilawal should assume the mantle of leadership,” he explained.

Earlier, thousands of people converged on Naudero and Garhi Khuda Bux to take part in the Soyem prayers for Ms Bhutto.

AFP adds: Earlier, the Pakistan Muslim League-Q party supporting Gen Musharraf announced that it was suspending campaigning for the vote and suggested a delay of up to 12 weeks.

Tariq Azim, former deputy information minister, said conditions had become too difficult because of the unrest.

“We have suspended our campaign because of the prevailing situation,” Mr Azim said. “Keeping everything in mind, a delay of 10 to 12 weeks is realistic.”

But PPP said it would not accept any delay.

“We will not accept any postponement of the elections and we want them as per schedule by January 8,” PPP Senator Safdar Abbasi told AFP. “If postponed or delayed we will devise our future course of action.”