BENAZIR Bhutto's teenage son Bilawal has taken on the role of peacemaker in an attempt to heal the rifts that threaten to split the Pakistan People's Party before it takes government.
Schisms have formed over who should take the post of prime minister. The ambitions of Bilawal's father, Asif Ali Zardari, 51, have been blamed.
A newspaper editorial headlined "Bilawal to the rescue" said yesterday the younger Bhutto's injection into the crisis was "on the pattern more usually adopted in past centuries for the heir-apparent in Mughal times".
The news came as leaders in Islamabad rebuked Washington for naming the former commanding officer of the Guantanamo Bay prison as head of the US defence office in Pakistan.
Under the watch of Major General Jay W.Hood at Guantanamo, allegations emerged that guards had abused the Koran by kicking the Islamic holy book and spraying urine on it.
The new Pakistani parliament will meet in Islamabad on Monday to appoint a new prime minister who will lead a coalition government dominated by the PPP and Nawaz Sharif's Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz).
As the biggest party in the coalition, the PPP has the right to name the prime minister.
Bilawal Bhutto Zardari arrived in Pakistan on Wednesday night and was last night ensconced in Zardari House in Islamabad, reportedly trying to heal the rift between his father and PPP veteran Makhdoom Amin Fahim, an early favourite for the prime ministership.
"Bilawal is a real Bhutto, the genuine article, not a light-version Bhutto by marriage like his father," one party source said last night. "He can appeal to all the aunties and uncles and to feudal Sindhi tradition in trying to sort out the incredible mess that has developed."
Mr Fahim, a former deputy to the slain Benazir Bhutto, was virtually promised the prime minister's post three days after her assassination on December 27.
At that time, Mr Zardari announced that Mr Fahim would be the party's candidate for prime minister if the PPP won the election. But since the poll victory, divisions have developed between the two. First came an announcement that Mr Fahim was no longer a certainty for the job. Then claims were aired that Mr Fahim was too close to President Pervez Musharraf, with whom he negotiated a power-sharing deal for Benazir Bhutto.
Mr Fahim's supporters say he has been humiliated by Mr Zardari. They have threatened to quit the party, taking with them backers from his home province of Sindh, a party stronghold.
Last night, Bilawal Bhutto Zardari was, in the words of one highly placed party source, "trying to sort out the mess that has been created".