The political party of Benazir Bhutto, the late Pakistani opposition leader, is meeting in southern Pakistan to choose her successor and decide whether to contest or boycott elections due in a little over a week.
Bhutto's assassination three days earlier has thrown into doubt the January 8 poll and stoked violence, killing at least 44 people.
Rioters have destroyed 176 banks, 34 petrol stations, 72 train cars, 18 rail stations, and hundreds of cars and shops.
The election commission said nine election offices, with the voter rolls and ballot boxes inside, were also wrecked.
With the printing of ballot slips and the training of poll workers hampered, the commission has called an emergency meeting for Monday.
Bhutto heir
Without the charismatic Bhutto, her party is in disarray.
Bhutto's 19-year-old son, Bilawal, is to read her will on Sunday at the meeting in her home town of Naudero, but the Oxford law student is seen as too young to lead a dynasty whose history is entwined with that of Pakistan.
A party official said that if Bilawal were chosen, the party may set up an advisory council until he finishes school and is able to lead the party on a full-time basis.
Sanam, Bhutto's younger sister, is also a possibility. The 50-year-old is the last surviving child of former premier Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto.
The choice of an immediate successor more likely lies between Makhdoom Amin Fahim, the PPP's vice-chairman and a long-time Bhutto aide, and Asif Ali Zardari, the former PM's husband. More on the story.
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