Bhutto's party to decide on successor

By Zeeshan Haider

ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - Benazir Bhutto's party was due to discuss a successor to the slain Pakistani opposition leader on Sunday and decide whether to contest an election due in little over a week.

Bhutto's assassination in a suicide attack on Thursday has stoked violence and thrown into doubt the January 8 election, deepening the crisis in the key U.S. ally against terrorism as it struggles to emerge from military rule.

Bhutto's Pakistan People's Party has dismissed government accusations that she was killed by al Qaeda, saying President Pervez Musharraf's embattled administration was trying to cover up its failure to protect her.

Without the charismatic Bhutto, 54, her party is in disarray.

Bhutto's 19-year-old son, Bilawal, is to read her will on Sunday but the Oxford law student is seen as too young to lead a dynasty whose history is entwined with that of Pakistan.

The choice of a successor lies between Bhutto's husband, Asif Ali Zardari, and her top aide, Makhdoom Amin Fahim.

"Everybody in the party knows that they have to stick to the legacy of Bhutto and without that legacy, they are nobody," said Najam Sethi, editor of the Daily Times.

The party leadership, due to meet in Bhutto's home town of Naudero in southern Pakistan, must also decide whether to contest the election if it goes ahead.