Pakistan poll date decision due

Elections were two weeks away when Bhutto was killed

Pakistan's election commission is meeting to decide when elections originally scheduled for 8 January will take place.

On Tuesday it said holding the polls as planned looked "impossible", in the wake of clashes following the killing of opposition leader Benazir Bhutto.

A commission official said the decision on the parliamentary poll would be made after consulting the political parties.

The main opposition parties want the poll to go ahead as planned.

The commission's spokesman, Kanwar Dilshad, said violent protests had directly affected the organisation of the poll.

PPP TOP LEADERS Asif Ali Zardari Benazir's widower and former political ally, has faced corruption and other charges Bilawal Bhutto (pictured) Benazir's son, a 19-year-old Oxford University student, considered too young by some PPP members Makhdoom Amin Fahim Senior PPP figure and top aide to Benazir

Thirteen polling offices were burnt in Ms Bhutto's home province of Sindh as protests and violent clashes broke out after her assassination last Thursday, he said.

But opposition parties have condemned any delay as a desperate measure to avoid defeat by President Pervez Musharraf's ruling party.

"There are no grounds whatsoever for delaying the elections," said Raza Rabbani, deputy secretary general of Ms Bhutto's party, the PPP.

"It is being done only at the behest of the PML-Q as they are seeing their defeat," he said.

The other main opposition leader, former PM Nawaz Sharif, vowed his party would "agitate" against a delay.

The ruling PML-Q party has said the 8 January vote should be delayed for several weeks, on the grounds that the vote would "lose credibility" if held under current conditions.

The BBC's Chris Morris in Islamabad says the PPP wants elections as soon as possible, in order to take advantage of what could be a big sympathy vote.

Dossier on 'rigging'

On Tuesday, one of Ms Bhutto's aides said that the day the PPP leader was killed, she had been planning to give two visiting US lawmakers a 160-page dossier setting out how she thought the vote would be rigged.

The aide said it documented how Pakistan's ISI intelligence service and the election commission planned to use intimidation and fake ballots to ensure a ruling party victory.

President Pervez Musharraf's spokesman dismissed the claims as "ridiculous".

"Take it from me, it's going to be perhaps the best election that Pakistan has ever had," said Rashid Qureshi.

The electoral commission has asked each of Pakistan's four provincial governments to compile reports on their readiness for an election.

The commission says in many districts ballot boxes and voting screens have been destroyed and the printing of ballot papers - and their delivery around the country - has also been disrupted.

Clashes

At least 47 people have been killed in violence since Ms Bhutto's death.

The authorities have accused pro-Taleban militant leader Baitullah Mehsud of being behind her killing.

On Wednesday, the military said troops had killed about 25 militants in the tribal region of South Waziristan where Baitullah Mehsud is based.

Fighting began on Tuesday after four troops were taken hostage by the militants, the authorities say.