Former Pakistani Prime Minister and opposition leader Benazir Bhutto was assassinated in a suicide attack after speaking at a campaign rally in Rawalpindi, Pakistan on December 27, 2007. Bhutto's attacker shot her in the neck and chest and then blew himself up next to her car. She was 54. Bhutto is pictured with U.S. President Bush at the White House in a June 6, 1989 file photo in Washington. (UPI Photo/Cliff Owen/FILES)

Durrani said Pakistan must not allow Thursday's assassination to disrupt planned elections Jan. 8.

Bhutto, who was Pakistan's prime minister from 1988 to 1990 and from 1993 to 1996, was killed in a suicide bombing as she left a political rally in Rawalpindi. It was unclear whether she died from bullet wounds or shrapnel.

Durrani said the assassination was a blow to liberal forces by extremists who oppose democracy, and praised Bhutto as " a real democrat" and "a pragmatic and prudent politician." He called her death a great "national loss."

"This has been done by terrorists, and this should firm up Pakistan's resolve to fight extremism and terrorism," he told a press conference. "And we will, God willing, keep democracy going in Pakistan."