LONDON, Jan 18: The prestigious Oxford Union Debating Society organised a debate in memory of its past president and former prime minister Benazir Bhutto.

The Thursday event in honour of the assassinated PPP leader was attended by former colleagues, students and friends including her 19-year-old son Bilawal Bhutto Zardari who did not speak on the occasion.

Bilawal, who was named as the party chairman in succession to his late mother, is the first year student at Christ Church College.

According to the traditions, such functions do not go the whole length and are adjourned to honour dead alumni who died an unnatural death, after a speech by a keynote speaker.

According to journalist and Bhutto’s family friend Victoria Schofield, the last such instance when the debate was adjourned was in 1979 when Benazir’s father Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto was hanged.

Benazir, who studied at the St. Margaret College was President of the Oxford Union in 1977, and was the first Asian woman to hold the post. British MP Alan Duncan paid tributes to Benazir and said during her times as the Debating Society President, the debates were fierce, colourful and hotly contested.—APP