islamic state militants has told the bbc he believes civilians were killed by british airstrikes on the iraqi city of mosul. so far only the us and australia have accepted any responsibility for civilian deaths estimates range from at least a thousand to more than 10,000. the armenian opposition leader, nikol pashinyan, has called for a general strike against the governing republican party, which has voted against his election as prime minister. addressing tens of thousands of supporters in the capital yerevan, he urged them to block roads, railway stations and airports. a bbc investigation has discovered that some stars on the video—sharing platform youtube are being paid to promote essay writing websites to school children and students on a big scale. a company based in ukraine is paying the online personalities to encourage people to pay for essays. now on bbc news: hardtalk. welcome to hardtalk with me, zeinab badawi. elections are due in pakistan

injuly and running for a seat in the national assembly is the heir to the country's main political dynasty. my guest is bilawal bhutto—zardari, son of benazir bhutto, twice prime minister of pakistan, who was assassinated in 2007. he's chairman of the pakistan people's party, founded by his grandfather 50 years ago. the ppp has seen its popularity plummet in recent years. can bilawal butto—zardari restore its fortunes and turn around their political legacy tarnished by allegations of corruption, patronage, and incompetence? bilawal bhutto—zardari,

welcome to hardtalk. thank you for having me, zeinab. your grandfather was executed, your mother assassinated. you've received death threats. why put yourself on the frontline of politics like this? thank you very much, zeinab. you know, three days after my mother's assassination, the party's central executive committee decided that i was to be the co—chairman of the pakistan people's party. along with your father, asif ali zardari. yes. at that time the country was in chaos. from karachi to kashmir, the people were rioting — the country was burning. and the party asked and it was not exactly something that i could turn down. i stepped up and did what i had to do. my mother often said that she didn't choose this life, it chose her. i believe the same applies to me.

i'm committed to trying to complete my mother's incomplete mission for a peaceful, prosperous and democratic pakistan. your mother was in self—imposed exile before she went back to pakistan in 2007. i saw her a couple of months before she was assassinated, and i asked why she went back to pakistan after the death threats. she said, you know, zeinab, i feel it is my duty, as you just said, to go back. she was fatalistic about what might happen to her. did she ever discuss the possibility that she might die with you or your two younger sisters? that is difficult conversation to have with anyone. everybody was aware of the risks. she would often say you can get to choose when you die. we have faith, particularly from our religion, that it's written down. and she would often joke that i could die walking across a street in london as well. she believed in the cause she was fighting for, a democratic pakistan,

and was warning a nation of the threat of extremism and terrorism. it was a time that all of pakistan's politicians weren't speaking up. my mother spoke up and was a beacon of hope for the people of pakistan. but neverthless, she was your mother, as well as this iconic political figure for many people. did you feel any anger or resentment about what she did and the fact that you and your sisters ended up losing your mother? absolutely. i was completely and utterly devastated. and even though i come from a family, my grandfather was assassinated, and both my uncles were associated, our workers... various political leaders

have been assassinated for the cause that they work for. it was something that completely broke us. rather than pursue a politics of hate and revenge, my mother has raised me differently. as a said three days after my mother's assassination, i was elected chairman, and instead of calling for revenge and instead of playing off the anger of the people of pakistan, the supporters of the pakistan people's party, i said that democracy is the best revenge, and tried to convert our grief into a cause. and we're working towards that sort of greater aim. but it was a great shock. you are living in dubai, mostly brought up at dubai... i was at university. i was a freshman at oxford university. i just completed my first freshman term at oxford university when this news came through. how did you learn about her death? uh, we were in actually dubai at the time. my mother had recently had a conversation with my father and myself that my father would live in dubai with us, and they would split the risks, he would stay abroad

and she would take the political risk. given the political risk the decision was taken that he too would come back. we literally were having a conversation when the news appeared on the... what was your last conversation with your mother? actually, i'd... i'd discussed with her her voice. she'd been campaigning all over the country. she is a very charismatic speaker, she spoke from the heart. 0bviously, after a long campaign, her voice had gone away. it was sort of raspy and things. i said that she had to have lemon and honey in her tea. and she said, "yes, ok, i'll do that." that was the last conversation we had. so you want to see justice of her death, because up until now, the only people who have been punished over her death are two policeman who were found guilty of cleaning the area where she'd been killed in rawalpindi. nobody in connection with her actual assassination. absolutely.

it was a great travesty of justice. there was a very strong case that included a united nations investigation report and pakistan's own investigation, which included not only dna results, dna test results that placed the suicide bomber with his alleged accomplices. the terrorists themselves, their self—confessions, the accused people that showed no remorse. it was a 15—year—old boy whose remains were found... but it was those higher up that nobody knows. absolutely, but those who were caught, though. the ones that... there are five, in detention, awaiting trial. they were acquitted. mr musharraf, who was not there... you're talking about president musharraf, at the time, who was... also accused and charged with this crime. legal proceedings, i have to say, against pervez musharraf have stalled, and when there's allegations... this is the same case where they let the terrorists off despite self—confessions from the accused.

they ignore musharraf's plan, they've let him run away from the country, and instead of giving a decision against him, they said, "when he comes back, we will decide what happens to him." but we know whenever these allegations that he was involved in benazir bhutto's death, he laughs off those allegations and says no involvement whatsoever on his part. he does concede, however, that there were rogue elements in the deep state, in the deep establishment, who may have been colluding with elements of the pakistan taliban to assassinate your mother. just want to put that straight. that's what he claims. but the united nations report states that her security was undermined. and mr musharraf threatened my mother. that's also on record. he denies that he denies having that conversation with her threatening her. yes, but there are witnesses. it has been presented in court that he threatened my mother.

she's on record, she told me, and i know she didn't lie to me... i'lljust say, on the record, that... that's fair enough. all right. when he is here, he can defend himself. pervez musharraf says no. he says no, as dictators and murderers often do. if it was the case, why is he running away from the court cases and not coming home to face the charges? and it is not only my mother's case in which he is accused. he is accused of bombing and killing the former chief minister of balochistan. we can't try... 0k. he has been charged with treason but is not appearing in any of these cases. he's in self—imposed exile in dubai, but i have to put on the record as i said that he denies all of that. yes, he denies. he says he is not a murderer or a dictator. not a dictator? is that also in doubt? this is a new alternative facts that... just putting out what he would say. but i want to ask you, bilawal zardari, your father became president soon after your mother's death in 2008,

because he was co—chair of the ppp. and if the investigation was to proceed smoothly, if there was to be no cover—up, he could have done something about that, because he was president. that's why, as president... why didn't he? he did. and as president of pakistan, for the first time in our history, our country went all the way to united nations for an investigation. now, the case that we have against the accused is very strong. you mentioned the un commission, which your father asked... not only the un commission. there's an investigation and case against... your own investigation at the bbc says it's a strong case. it points to dna evidence being ignored, that's a very serious allegation. in the same case, after a government completed its term, the chief prosecutor was assassinated. in this case, my mother, who had a strong case against mr musharraf, the seven judges changed hands in this case. instead of two weeks as was expected, it took ten years. and that is a travesty ofjustice we haven't got... you haven't got justice yet for your mother. i understand that. but the un commission president, heraldo munoz, says there were many people in the establishment that wanted to interview

but they refused. he also said some of the obstacles were not from the military but government ministers too. he said the un team... he was unable to... he said the un team's security was withdrawn... he was unable... your father was president at the time. absolutely. i don't want to get into how... these government ministers were also ppp ministers. i don't want to get into... yeah, the government ministers, abolutely, let me please explain. i am not trying to deny that. they were ministers of the government. if they failed to produce people, that is our failing that we failed to produce individuals that they wanted to produce. but the report also mentions the fact that they did not have access to the certain individuals did not undermine their ability to produce a report. it had no consequences on the credibility of the report, the accusations in the report of my mother's security being undermined. 0k.

we have talked about your accusations and what his response would be. but let's talk about the party founded by your grandfather, the ppp. he was executed 1979 by the military under martial law. so we have a history of military dictators assassinating. .. well, all right. and they keep denying. it's on the record. ok, that's what you're saying. it is on the record. all right. but is it fair to say that the ppp is run like a personalfiefdom of the bhutto family? it is an accusation of dynastic politics is reality in pakistan. i will not debate merits of demerits of that, because any modern society

would want to promote a system that is a meritocracy. but we at the ppp did not pursue this dynastic politics by choice. if my grandfather wasn't assassinated, if my mother was not assassinated, my grandfather would be the one doing politics, my mother would be in the foreign office and i'd still be a student. every other political party that relies on dynastic politics in pakistan has not suffered assassination but still brothers and sisters are still running the party. so that's what you say on the dynastic argument, but... i also told you that three days after my mother's assassination, and we'd just buried the body, the central executive committee of the party asked me, it's not so that i could have refused. i stood up and did what i had to do. you felt that you wer impelled to do it. and my party is the one that

decides who leads them. and they obviously felt that they trusted me the most to continue my mother's mission. and editorial on german tv station deutschewelle‘s website in october 2016 said your future "is weak because benazir bhutto's ppp does not exist any more, it died with her in 2007." the assasination not only left a huge vacuum within the pakistan people's party, but also within the body politics of pakistan. and not only her assassination, but the climate in our politics at the moment in pakistan. it's filled with extremism, partisanship and hate—driven politics that i refuse to engage in. perhaps in the short term... but it's what's going on in the ppp it's referring to. let me tell you something else it says. it quotes one of benazir‘s closest aides, nahid khan, she fell out with your father when he became president and became co—chair of the party. she'd actually fell out with my mother before she was assassinated. she said, "the present ppp leadership is only interested in power and has abandoned the ppp ideology."

she has said that you have forgotten your slogan of food, shelter, clothing, shelter, islam, and economic socialism, this is the mantra of the ppp, and it has lost its roots. i would disagree with her, obviously. she is our opponent, she runs in elections, and she has the right to criticise. the pakistan people's party are committed to the same idea. i am committed and i will fight for the ideals, i will die for them. she ignores issues that face the people of pakistan from extremism to poverty to financial chaos. the pakistan people's party and myself thinking to advocate for these principles, we are not in government today, we are in opposition, but we are doing what we can from the opposition‘s respect. yourfather had an important role in the party and the american pakistan journalists says the political career has been scripted by his father and members of his team.

"he could revive his mother's party if he breaks free from his father's influence and takes charge of the ppp." bilawal, who is in control of the ppp — you or yourfather? in democratic parties, you work together and make decisions through consensus. myself, my father don't dictate decisions. we have a central executive committee of the party that makes party policy, that decides party policy, and we implement that policy. as far as my political career is concerned, i'm in no rush and i'm not worried. i'm 29 years old and i'm in this for the long haul. are you in control of the party or is your father in control of the party or do you work together? we work together. we absolutely work together. but pakistan and the pakistan people's party faces a lot of challenges. these challenges aren't going to be defeated in a single day. you have to be committed for the long haul. one of your challenges

is that your popularity‘s really plummeting as a party. the last elections in 2013, you won 14—7 seats, and the ruling party, the pml—n — pakistan muslim league—nawaz — got 189 seats. even in a by—election in lahore, where your party was born, recently the partyjust had a fraction of votes, and part of the problem is that the ppp's being seen as mired in corruption, the masses feel that, the opposition politician, imran khan, has called yourfather "the biggest illness of sindh province," and he talks about asif ali zardari's wealth has skyrocketed, and it's these kind of allegations swirling around your party... let me address the three different things you have brought up. first is the 2013 general elections. let me allow to contextualise what happened in the 2013 general elections. the taliban, the terrorists had

called out the pakistan people's party and said, "we will not allow them to campaign. we will attack them." my candidates were kidnapped, the prime minister's son was kidnapped, the former governor's son was kidnapped. they also took other political parties‘ names. they took imran khan's pti, muslim league—nawaz and jamaat—e—islami. in their case, they said these are our allies, they will have a free hand and they can run. on top of that, the pakistan people's party was the first government to complete a civilian term and conduct a peaceful transfer of power. we went against a whole host the political chiefjustice 55 555 5355 5555 e55 5555 5555 on to form his own political party, stopped my father from campaigning. so good or bad... even in the by—elections a few months ago, you only got a handful of votes.

that's your stronghold. that's not my stronghold — i'm getting there. i meant lahore, the province. if you please...so that was the 2013 election. you won't allow to campaign. you show me how, whether it's any american president, any british party, if their leadership is not allowed to campaign, they're under attack from terrorists, and everybody else is given a free hand, there are going to be consequences to that. but polls still show consistently that the pml—n, you know, nation poll shows that your vote is not as high as the ruling party. as far as the by—elections are concerned, you refer to an older by—election. the last by—election that took place on the border of south punjab and sindh was the kotki by—election. in that by—election, we won by a lead of 12,000 points. but at the end of the... what about the corruption allegations? i'm so glad you brought me on to that, because this political victimisation has gone on throughout my mother's and father's political life. there were umpteen cases brought against them. my father spent 11.5 years in prison without a conviction. each and every single case brought against my parents — it took us 30 years, we fought it out — each and every case,

they have been acquitted. after that, that was when my father didn't enjoy power. it was after that that he became the most powerful civilian president in pakistan's history. for those 5—year terms, there has been accusations and lies, not a single case has been brought against my father. i'm sure imran khan will say that he doesn't tell lies. he would say that, but he does. just putting that out there. it's on the record. alright, putting that out there. so looking there now, here you are, chairman of the ppp, you've got these elections injuly for the national assembly, you want to do well yourself, voters want you to address those basic development issues i talked about — food, shelter, clothing, education, health and all the rest of it. is that the key plank now of your campaign platform? i'm so glad you asked me that, because that's exactly what my slogan is for the next general election — food, clothing and shelter, education, health and jobs for all. the pakistan people's party is focused on the issues.

so bread and butter issues — you're focused on that. so you're seen as, obviously, you're a young man, seen as very progressive in your thinking, on women's rights, on minorities rights and so on. you've got some rather eye—catching policies as well, on foreign policy for instance. you believe in military action against the taliban in pakistan. i mean, is that a good idea, do you think, when you see that neighbouring afghanistan, ashraf ghani there is saying, "well, you know, we may need to negotiate with some elements of the taliban." you're deliberately taking a very different tack there. my — absolutely. i feel that actually pakistan has been solely focusing on the military component against extremism, and it needs to be a broader approach. we absolutely have to, you know, people who challenge our state, to take up arms against the state, we have to challenge them militarily. but we need a holistic overall approach that doesn't only focus

on terrorism, but also focuses on countering extremism, which would require education reform, curriculum reform, police reform, judicial reform and providing economic opportunity — equal economic opportunity. this is the overall comprehensive package that i believe the pakistan people's party can lead and provide, whereas the current government has been led behind, they've only been reacting to events and haven't been leading on the issue of extremism and terrorism, which was the number one most fundamental threat to pakistan's existence. touching on kashmir very quickly — you said, "i'll take back kashmir, all of it, and not leave behind a single inch of it because, like other provinces, it belongs to pakistan." i wasn't — i want to clarify — i was talking in a political context of winning elections, but i'm going to speak about the kashmir issue nonetheless. it wasn't a pakistani prime minister. it was the pm of india who took the kashmir issues to the united nations security council, which calls for a plebiscite. it's not the pakistani constitution alone, it's the indian constitution that says kashmir gives us a special

designation as a result of its disputed territory. unfortunately, india refuses to talk about kashmir. you're going to be at loggerheads with india, though, on that path, aren't you? my point is that we can't ignore the united nations. we can't continue to close our eyes to what's happening in kashmir. it's the age of social media. we can't hide the young generation. the kashmiris are coming out on the streets, protesting for their rights, and they're being attacked with pellet guns, and human rights atrocities, the people of kashmir are screaming that the butcher has become the butcher of kashmir and the world international committee is turning a blind eye. we have to engage on issues. i want peace with india, but in order to accomplish that, we can't ignore the elephants in the room. so we were talking about you entering politics, you said you felt you had to, do what you're doing now. do you feel that it's a burden on you? look, there's no greater pride in a son's life to know, to feel that he is working towards accomplishing his mother's unfulfilled mission. that is what motivates me,

that's what drives me. of course it's challenging. pakistan is one of the most difficult countries on the planet to do politics. my entire family has been assassinated, workers and leaders of my party have been assassinated... are you worried about your own safety? i have a lot of security and i feel secure. but the fact of the matter is that i feel passionately that the people of pakistan deserve equal opportunity, they deserve a progressive country, where regardless of whether you're rich or poor, male or female, muslim or non—muslim, you have equal rights and equal opportunities. do you think you'll become prime minister? my aim is to achieve my ideology and my goals — that is my motivation. it is not a desire or a simple desire to become prime minister of pakistan. bilawal bhutto—zardari, thank you very much indeed for coming on hardtalk. thank you so much for having me. such a pleasure. good morning.

the day ahead is a "getting better" kind of day. after a particularly wet start for some, some heavy rain around first thing, rain will clear most areas at least through the day, and then we're into a story of sunshine and one or two showers. this is the weather system bringing in the wet weather overnight, into the morning. clearing away from western scotland, northern ireland as we start the day, so temperatures will take a little bit of a dip late in the night here. but elsewhere, not quite as cold a start to the day as we saw yesterday morning. but, for the commute, it will be a thoroughly wet one. eastern scotland, through a good part of central england and eastern wales, a few showers in the east.

but a few get away with not too much wet weather early on, but it does turn wetter here through the middle part of the day. as the rain clears from central, western parts, we see sunshine and just one or two showers. some of those showers could be wintry over the tops of the scottish mountains, some hail mixed in, too. and temperatures down a little bit on what we saw through tuesday, but pleasant enough in the south where you've got the sunshine. now, the rain will be last to clear east anglia, south—east, roughly late afternoon, early evening, and then it's clear skies here to take it into wednesday night. a few showers continuing for parts of scotland in particular, but most will be dry. but what does happen through wednesday night into thursday is that, with the jet stream dipping southwards just temporarily, we'll see some slightly cooler air push its way in. so it'll be a chillier start once again on thursday morning. don't be surprised, eastern scotland, central and eastern england, if there's a touch of frost in one 01’ two areas. but a lovely, sunny start to the day here, before cloud increases from the west.

in the west, we'll see sunny spells, but always a bit more cloud, and that cloud will thicken up in northern ireland, western scotland, produce some spots of drizzle, some heavier bursts of rain for 0rkney and shetland during the afternoon. but after that chilly start, south—westerly winds push in, temperatures will be on the rise once again. so, finish thursday and go into friday, we'll see the winds fall a bit lighter across the south. there could be quite a bit of cloud to begin with, a bit misty in places, but the cloud will break up, some sunny spells coming through. the chance in some western parts of england and wales of a little bit of drizzle here and there, and that will be the case in scotland and northern ireland. but most will be dry, and when the cloud does break, milder air is working its way in. temperatures mid to high teens. and, with the jet stream then pushing to the north of us into the weekend, we bring ever—milder air to just about all. so temperatures will be a bit of a shocker for bank holiday weekend, and high pressure dominates, mainly across southern areas. have to watch these weather fronts bringing some occasional rain to scotland and maybe northern ireland, particularly through saturday night into sunday.

but the general theme for the bank holiday weekend is things warm up, temperatures high teens, low 20s, and most places will stay dry. this is the briefing. i'm sally bundock. our top story: armenia's opposition leader calls for a general strike, after parliament blocked him from becoming prime minister. police in rome insist they can guarantee the safety of football fans ahead of tonight's champions league semi final. it follows violence at the first leg in liverpool. and vatican treasurer cardinal george pell is expected to face two separate trials in australia on sexual assault charges. not a bruise in sight. apple earnings beat expectations on sales, profits — even in china there was a nice surprise for investors. also, restoring trust.