Before Zardari could enter the tomb, hordes of people forced their way inside chanting “Long Live Bhutto”, some weeping and beating their heads in grief.

“This is the fight between establishment and the people,” Zardari said in a speech imploring Pakistanis to vote for PPP. Moments earlier he had prayed at the rose petal strewn grave in the mausoleum where Bhutto lies alongside her father, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, Pakistan’s first popularly elected prime minister.

Her father was toppled and hanged by the military in the late 1970s, but the PPP still draws on his populist appeal.

“Zulfikar Ali Bhutto laid down his life for his mission and so did his daughter. I myself and the party will take forward this mission,” said Zardari, who spent eight years in jail but was never convicted of corruption charges.

Conspiracy theories still swirl over who was behind the gun and suicide bomb attack that killed Bhutto. Controversy even rages over whether Bhutto was killed by a bullet or by a concussive head injury caused by the bomb detonated after an assassin shot at her from close range.

The PPP named Bhutto’s son, Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, as party chairman and Zardari as co-chairman.