Bilawal Bhutto to accept UN Prize for Benazir

ISLAMABAD: Slain former Pakistani premier Benazir Bhutto's son Bilawal will accept the UN Human Rights Prize awarded posthumously to his mother at a ceremony to be held in New York next week.

Bilawal, 20, was made chairman of the ruling PPP, days after the assassination of his mother in December last year. He is currently studying at Oxford.

The 2008 Human Rights Prize has been awarded to Bhutto in recognition of the former premier's struggle for democracy and fundamental freedoms in Pakistan.

The award ceremony will be held at the UN headquarters in New York on December 10, marking the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Bilawal is expected to arrive in New York on December 7.

Bhutto, chairperson of the PPP, was killed by a suicide attacker on December 27 last year shortly after she had addressed an election rally in the garrison city of Rawalpindi.