Bhutto's 19-year-old son named party leader

The 19-year-old son of the late Benazir Bhutto was on Sunday named chairman of the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) following the assassination of his mother on Thursday.

Bilawal Bhutto, a student at Oxford University in the UK, will be joined by his father Asif Ali Zardari as co-chairman, it was announced following at an emergency party meeting held in the southern town of Naudero, at which Bhutto's will was read.

“It has been decided that Bilawal will be the chairman and Mr [Asif Ali] Zardari will be co-chairman,” said a party official.

It is expected that an advisory council led by Zardari will lead the party until Bilawal finishes university.

Following the meeting, Zardari said the party would take part in the parliamentary election.

"Despite this dangerous situation, we will go for elections, according to her will and thinking," Zardari told a news conference.

Bilawal said the party's fight for democracy would continue. "My mother always said, democracy is the best revenge," he said.

Bhutto was assassinated in a suicide attack after addressing a campaign rally in Rawalpindi in the lead up to next month's parliamentary elections.

A suicide bomber fired shots at Bhutto while she was waving to supporters from her car and then blew himself up, killing at least 20 other people.

It was the second suicide attack at a Bhutto event since she had returned from exile in October, aiming to contest the elections, and comes amid an unprecedented wave of violence in the country.

The deadliest terror attack in Pakistan's history targeted her homecoming rally just hours after her return, leaving 139 people dead.

Controversy still surrounds how Bhutto died. Official findings claim the cause of death was a sunroof lever her head struck as she ducked back into her armoured vehicle.

However, eyewitness accounts claim there was a clear bullet wound in the back of her neck.

The assassination has sparked a wave of unrest that has paralysed the country, with demonstrators fighting running street battles with police and torching hundreds of banks, shops, offices, railway stations, trains and vehicles.

The violence has left at least 38 people dead and dozens injured and damage estimated by the Interior Ministry at tens of millions of dollars.

President Pervez Musharraf has ordered security chiefs to take firm action against rioters, and officials say the situation has now started to ease.

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