Bhutto husband says wife shot

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan, Dec. 31 (UPI) -- Benazir Bhutto's husband, rejecting the Pakistani government's claim the former prime minister died of a fractured skull, insisted she was shot.

"I can say confidently that she was shot," Asia Ali Zardari said in a CNN report.

Zardari called the official explanation on Bhutto's death, who was assassinated Thursday at a political rally, "a useless excuse." He said it was meant to draw attention from the main subject of the person responsible for her death.

The Pakistani government had first said she died from shrapnel wounds but later said X-rays showed she died after her head hit a metal lever on the sunroof of her car after the explosion.

Zardari, who becomes co-chairman of Bhutto's party while his son becomes its leader, said his wife's assassination threatens Pakistan's disintegration, the CNN report said.

Separately, Nawaz Sharif, another former premier and head of the Pakistan Muslim League-N party, was quoted as saying he believed Pakastani President Pervez Musharraf planned to delay the Jan. 8 parliamentary elections because Musharraf's party won't win the needed seats to stay in power.

The country's election commission was to decide Tuesday whether to have the elections as scheduled.

Sharif's own party decided to boycott the polls but has changed its position because of appeals from Bhutto's party not to do so.