By Zeeshan Haider
Pakistan's Election Commission said on Tuesday a general election scheduled for January 8 would "in principle" be postponed but it had to consult political parties before announcing a new date.
The election, meant to complete a transition to civilian rule, has been thrown into question by the assassination of opposition leader Benazir Bhutto on Thursday and widespread violence, especially in the south, by her outraged supporters.
Election Commission official Kanwar Dilshad told reporters that "in principle" the election was being delayed and a new date would be announced on Wednesday.
The commission has said that many of its offices in Sindh, Bhutto's home province, were burnt in the rioting that followed Bhutto's murder and election material including voter rolls reduced to ashes.
"We will inform the political parties about the situation in Sindh where our 13 offices were burnt. We will inform them about the ground realities and then we will fix a date in consultation with them," Dilshad said.
Bhutto's Pakistan People's Party and the other main opposition party, led by former prime minister Nawaz Sharif, both say they oppose any delay in the election.
The other main party, the Pakistan Muslim League (Q) which supports President Pervez Musharraf, has said it favors a delay because of the security situation.
"There are no grounds whatsoever for delaying the elections," said Raza Rabbani, deputy secretary general of Bhutto's party.
"It is being done only at the behest of the PML (Q) as they are seeing their defeat," he said.
(Additional reporting by Faisal Aziz; writing by Robert Birsel; editing by Roger Crabb)