With the newly-appointed Pakistan People's Party chief Bilawal Bhutto Zardari and his sisters back in Dubai, the elders are taking all possible steps to ensure the other Bhutto children do not interact with the media.

At the press conference following Bilawal's appointment as chairman of the PPP, his father and party co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari asked the media to not address questions to his son.

The Bhutto children have been asked to avoid the national and international media to avoid any embarrassment ahead of the general election.

Bilawal's 25-year-old cousin Fatima, a bitter critic of Benazir, has also been directed not to speak to the media, The News reported.

Fatima, who has written a lot against Benazir, is forwarding interview requests to her stepmother Ghinwa Bhutto.

When a reporter of a local daily met Ghinwa, she did not let her children talk -- even though her son Zulfiqar Junior was keen on replying to some questions.

The media is hanging on to every word uttered by any of the Bhutto children, especially Bilawal.

Fatima, who wrote her last piece on Benazir a day after her assassination on December 27, admitted that she was a bitter critic of her aunt but said she was saddened by her death. She said she was yet to bury a Bhutto who died of natural causes and that the family graveyard at Garhi Khuda Buksh was full.

Many think that Fatima, who is often compared to Benazir, was more fit to take over the PPP mantle.

Following Benazir's death of her aunt, her relationship with her cousins -- Bilawal and his sisters Bakhtawar and Asifa -- has improved, sources said.

Fatima herself wrote that she feels for her cousins because she has been through it all.

Her father Murtaza was shot dead outside his home in Karachi in 1996 when Benazir was the prime minister.