Ghulam Mustafa Jatoi, Pakistan's former prime minister, throws rose petals on the grave of Benazir Bhutto today. Election officials recommended that parliamentary polls scheduled for Jan. 8 be delayed for an unspecified period.

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — Elections in Pakistan appeared set to be delayed by several weeks despite demands by the party of slain opposition leader Benazir Bhutto and other politicians that they take place as scheduled on Jan. 8, officials said today.

The Election Commission said it had recommended an unspecified delay in the parliamentary polls following unrest triggered by Bhutto's assassination last week. It said its final decision would be made on Tuesday.

Separately, a senior government official predicted the elections would be postponed by "six weeks or so as the environment to hold free and fair elections is not conducive."

Meanwhile, video footage of Bhutto's killing raised new questions about the government's version of how she died. On Sunday, her party named her 19-year-old son its symbolic leader, while her husband was said to take effective control.

Despite being in mourning, Bhutto's political party and that of Pakistan's other major opposition leader want the polls held on time, perhaps sensing major electoral gains are possible amid sympathy because of Bhutto's death and accusations that political allies of President Pervez Musharraf were behind the killing. The government has rejected the charges.

Opposition leader Nawaz Sharif, like Bhutto also a former prime minister, said Monday that the election should be held Jan. 8, while also saying Musharraf should resign and be replaced by a national unity government.

"He is a one-man calamity. He is responsible for all the trouble in Pakistan. The country is burning," Sharif said.

Western governments are also urging the government to go ahead with the polls without major delays. They see the elections as a key step in U.S.-backed plans to restore democracy to the nation as it battles Taliban and al-Qaida militants.

Bhutto was killed in a suicide bomb and gun attack on Thursday, but disagreements between her supporters and the government over the precise cause of death are undermining confidence in Musharraf and adding to calls for international investigators to probe the killing.

New video footage, obtained by Britain's Channel 4, shows a man firing a handgun at Bhutto from close range as she stands up in an open-topped vehicle. Her hair and shawl then move upward, suggesting she may have been shot. She then falls into the vehicle just before an explosion rocks the car.

The government has insisted Bhutto was not hit by any of the bullets and died after the force of the blast slammed her head against the sunroof.