After the assassination, the Bhuttos feud

The anointment of Benazir Bhutto's 19-year-old son, Bilawal Bhutto Zardari (pictured), and her controversial husband, Asif Ali Zardari, as co-chairmen of the Pakistan People's Party, has not gone down well with some of the Bhutto family. Mumtaz Bhutto, the 74-year-old head of the bitterly divided tribe, said: "Zardari is an illiterate man. He has no political background. He will be unable to conduct himself at the same level as Benazir… Most unfortunate." Mumtaz last met with Benazir 12 years ago for a lunch during which they could agree on nothing.

Unfortunately the alternatives have as little political experience. One of Benazir's greatest critics was Ghinwa Bhutto, the Lebanese wife of Benazir's brother Murtaza. After Murtaza was shot dead in Karachi in 1996, Ghinwa blamed the prime minister of the day, Benazir. The late PPP leader for her part reportedly used to disparage Ghinwa as the 'Lebanese belly-dancer'. She leads a PPP splinter party which holds no seats.

Mumtaz's daughter Fatima, meanwhile, is a columnist for The News, a Pakistani daily. She was a harsh critic of "Mrs Zardari's" "personal theatre" in returning from exile and exposing those around her to suicide bombings. For her, at least, Benazir's murder has brought a change of tone. In a column immediately after her aunt's assassination, Fatima wrote, "Honestly, I am at a loss. I have yet to bury a family member who has died a natural death." (Continued below)

Meanwhile at Oxford University, police and intelligence services are busy examining how they can protect Bilawal when he returns to Christ Church this month after his turbulent Christmas break. Friends he made in his first term are likely to find themselves questioned, while a special debate on Pakistan on January 17 at the Oxford Union – where Bilawal is a member and his mother was once president – is expected to present considerable security problems.