Pakistan has indicated it would delay January elections because of turmoil caused by the death of Benazir Bhutto, as a dispute erupted over how the opposition leader was killed.
Violent protests and looting have left at least 38 people dead and 53 injured since Ms Bhutto was killed at a campaign rally in the northern city of Rawalpindi on Thursday.
The US has urged Pakistan to commit to the democratic process in the aftermath of her death, but leading opposition figure Nawaz Sharif has said his party will boycott the polls.
Ms Bhutto's Pakistan People's Party, which has accused the government of trying to cover up the real circumstances of her death, has said it will decide tomorrow whether to take part in the 8 January parliamentary elections.
Pakistan's interior ministry moved to quash the cover-up claims, saying its account of how Ms Bhutto died was based on the facts and offering to exhume her body for inquiry.
The country's election commission said it would hold an urgent meeting on Monday to decide the vote's fate but indicated a delay was possible.
In some places, the commission said, the security situation was not conducive to holding the elections, which Ms Bhutto had come home from exile in October to contest.
It cited the death of an election candidate in a bomb blast and said election commission offices in nine districts had been set on fire and voter lists reduced to ashes.
The polls would lack credibility without the participation of Ms Bhutto’s PPP, which has been infuriated by the government's official account of their leader's death.
Early reports said Ms Bhutto had been shot before a bomb exploded nearby.
However the government said she had no gunshot or shrapnel wounds.
It said the opposition leader died after hitting her head on her car's sunroof as she tried to duck.
The ministry also blamed al-Qaeda, saying intelligence services had intercepted a call from Baitullah Mehsud, considered the extremist group's top leader for Pakistan.
Senior members of Ms Bhutto's party have dismissed the government’s version of events, calling it lies.
