NAUDERO, Pakistan — Benazir Bhutto’s widower, Asif Ali Zardari, launched a scathing attack on Pakistan’s establishment yesterday and said a victory for his party in forthcoming elections would be his wife’s greatest legacy.

Speaking to the Daily Telegraph at the end of 40 days of mourning and before an election campaign that starts Friday, Mr. Zardari did not rule himself out as a future candidate for prime minister.

Elections were delayed until February 18 after Pakistan’s most charismatic politician was killed in a suicide attack that heightened international concern about the stability of nuclear-armed Pakistan.

Reports of election rigging are already rife ahead of polls that are crucial for a weakened and increasingly unpopular president, Pervez Musharraf, who could face impeachment if voters choose a hostile parliament.

“In spite of all this, we will win to show the world our commitment to democracy,” Mr. Zardari said. “If there are free and fair elections, we will win hands down.”

Bhutto’s Pakistan’s People’s Party named her 19-year-old son, Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, as chairman and Mr. Zardari, 51, as co-chairman.

The decision was in accordance with her will, written just before she returned to Pakistan last October.

“Bilawal is at Oxford; he is studying and does not need any more stress,” his father said, explaining why he has taken on the role as “prince regent.”