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 47 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.

Fuelling the protests in Pakistan’s streets is distrust of Pervez Musharraf, the president, and his administration’s contention that Bhutto was killed by al-Qaeda.

Abu Bakr, a Bhutto supporter, told Al Jazeera: “This is a conspiracy. Musharraf has hatched this conspiracy. Al-Qaeda has not done this. This was a plot by Musharraf.”

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