The New Nation - Internet Edition

Dr.Abdul Ruff

Pakistan was created in 1947 with a clear mandate for establishing an Islamic society to fully cater for the genuine aspirations of Muslims that are denied in India. But the Islamic state continued to face threats and other problems from India as well as from within. In stead of development, the county was shackled with infightings and countering "terrorism". As per the accounts, former premier of Pakistan Bhutto died on Thursday, December 27, 2007, when an attacker shot her, piercing through the bullet-proof vehicle and then blew himself up before a suicide bomber detonated his explosives, as she left a political rally in Rawalpindi, a city near the capital where Pakistan's army has its headquarters. On 30 December, her PPP party named her 19-year-old son Bilawal its symbolic leader, while her husband was said to take effective control. Benazir Bhutto's 19-year-old son Bilawal will take her place as the leader of Pakistan's biggest opposition party to help "maintain its unity".

The senior allies, British and US governments had been pushing Bhutto, a moderate Muslim seen as friendly to the West, to form a power-sharing agreement with Musharraf after the election - a combination seen as the most effective in the fight against al-Qaeda, which is believed to be regrouping in the country's lawless tribal areas.

The security situation is precarious in Pakistan and around. Knowing the serious danger to Benazir's life Musharraf gave her full protection and even her residence was surrounded by security agencies. She and her party objected and major part of security was withdrawn by the government. Lifting of emergency seemed to have made the life of Benazir a closed chapter.

It was the second suicide attack against her since her tumultuous homecoming from an eight-year exile in October. Bhutto had accused elements in the ruling party of backing militants to kill her - claims that could gain more traction now despite government denials. At the very least, the government appears to be losing its grip over Pakistan. "Conditions in the country have reached a point where it is too dangerous for political parties to operate," a political analyst said.

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. Many in the PPP argued that there should be no delay, in part because the party would benefit from a sympathy vote in the wake of Bhutto's assassination on Thursday. But officials of President Musharraf party, the Pakistan Muslim League (Q), have hinted the election could be put off for a few months.

Bhutto's party also appealed to the party of former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, the country's other major opposition leader, to reverse an earlier decision to boycott the polls. Sharif's party later agreed. The two leaders had a long telephonic conversation and talked about evolving a joint strategy to foil the rigging plans. She had also sent flowers and a cake to Sharif on his birthday on December 25.

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. 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 soon.

With the leader of the largest opposition party assassinated, people are asking whether the elections should be held as planned in January. Even if President Pervez Musharraf decides to go ahead with the vote, there is uncertainty over whether it could generate the kind of national goodwill needed to pull the country out of crisis. The security situation may get worse if supporters of Ms Bhutto's Pakistan People's Party (PPP) riot against the government.

The sudden death of Ms. Bhutto, triggered by bombs, evoked loudest protests in Pakistan and abroad. The unfortunate tragedy has been viewed differently by various people depending on their attitude to Pakistan and Islam in general. But one common element is strikingly overt in the media writings about the tragic death. USA-led West and many other countries in the East stated that democracy is assassinated in Pakistan. They say that ability of militants to wreak havoc with their ruthless tactics is once again demonstrated. That way of looking at the incident is to dilute the emotional fever people have suffered now. Really democracy is in danger in Pakistan. As American, Indian and Pakistani media trumpet now around? Fingers are already being pointed at the administration for failing to prevent the assassination of a former prime minister.

The other key opposition leader, Nawaz Sharif - whose government was ousted in the 1999 coup that brought Musharraf to power - quickly announced he was boycotting the parliamentary elections, which are meant to usher Pakistan toward civilian government after years of military dominance. Sharif, a longtime rival of Bhutto and also facing serious corruption cases, sounded a defiant note after the assassination of Bhutto, and her supporters rampaged across Pakistani cities. "We will take the revenge on the rulers," a tearful Sharif said after he rushed to the Rawalpindi hospital where Bhutto was pronounced dead.

Musharraf is under pressure to keep the security situation steady and to prevent Ms Bhutto's assassination from snowballing into another crisis of legitimacy. Fingers are already being pointed at the administration for failing to prevent the assassination of a former prime minister in the high-security garrison town of Rawalpindi. The president's credibility is also at risk because the largest opposition party has been thrown into disarray so close to the elections, creating a void in the system.

Not only Indian and many other nations envying Pakistan, but the West considered the death of Bhutto a sever bow to democracy in Pakistan.

It is a known fact that US strategists have devised long-term strategy as Vision of 2030 for USA as the superpower: to most of the Islamic world by hook or crook. With the fall of USSR in the late 1980s, after a prolonged 'Cold war' strategy, the USA turned to other enemies, the Islam. The Sept 11 strategy, accordingly, was well planned, minutely practiced and tactfully executed. That, as expected, gave the USA legitimacy to embark on its invasion schedule in Afghanistan and Iraq under various pretexts. Now Iran, Syria and some are in the hit-list. Rest is already history.

The assassination of Benazir Bhutto is a severe, and potentially crippling, blow to international hopes that Pakistan might emerge into a state of stability. The risks of Pakistan imploding have once again increased. It is a further setback for the US "war on terror", which has as part of its strategy in the region the restoration of democracy in Pakistan to offer an alternative path, away from militancy and extremism. The strategy is very much at risk.

Leading US newspapers urged the Bush administration to reassess its backing of Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf and support "democracy" following the assassination of Benazir Bhutto. The New York Times said that American policy must now be directed at building a strong democracy in Pakistan that has the respect and the support of its own citizens and the will and the means to fight Al-Qaeda and the Taliban.

"The days of Washington mortgaging its interests there to one or two individuals must finally come to an end," it said. USA basically delivered a message to Musharraf that we would stand by USA, but Musharraf needed a democratic facade on the government, and we thought Benazir was the right choice for that face, according to former CIA officer and employee of the National Security Council.

USA Today argued in an editorial that the US hope was that Bhutto could recapture the job after parliamentary elections in January and strengthen democratic institutions, helping to keep Pakistan's nuclear weapons away from its large radicalized Islamic population. "That strategy was left in ruins by Bhutto's tragic assassination," USA Today pointed out.

Charismatic, striking, smart, ambitious and resilient, and a canny political operator, Benazir Bhutto, 54, was reared amid the privileges of Pakistan's aristocracy and the ordeals of its turbulent politics. Ms. Bhutto, "daughter of East", the prime minister of Pakistan from 1988 to 1990 and from 1993 to 1996, is the leader of the Pakistan People's Party, took over the leadership of her father's party and became the first woman leader of an Islamic country when she was first elected prime minister in 1988 at the age of 35. She served a total of six years in office before being dismissed in 1996 amid widespread charges of corruption against herself and her husband. She took up residence in London.

In the summer of 2007, with the encouragement of Washington, she entered into power-sharing talks with Gen. Pervez Musharraf. But no deal was reached, and Ms. Bhutto returned to the country in October in an ambiguous position, not quite allied with General Musharraf and not quite opposed. When he imposed emergency rule in November, she waited several days before denouncing the move. She wrote in NY Times on November 07, 2007: "It is dangerous to stand up to a military dictatorship, but more dangerous not to. The moment has come for the Western democracies to show us in their actions, and not just in their rhetoric, which side they are on"

Zardari, 51, is known for his love of polo and other perquisites of the good life like fine clothes, expensive restaurants, homes in Dubai and London, and an apartment in New York. He was minister of investment in Ms. Bhutto's second government. Indeed, one of Ms. Bhutto's main objectives in seeking to return to power was to restore the reputation of her husband, especially after his prison term, said Abdullah Riar, a former senator in the Pakistani Parliament and a former colleague of Ms. Bhutto's.

Pakistan since its establishment in 1947 has been under the constant threat and snub of India. Every plan Islamabad undertook, therefore, had reflected that fear, India nuclear weapons thus posed a final threat to Pakistan which also considered its own nuclear option seriously at the cost of developmental projects and had nuclear facility soon. Two major wars it had to fight with India crippling its growing economy enormously. Benazir considered India the top most threat to Pakistan and its genuine interests.

Actually, India, ill-focused on Pakistan in all respects keeps snubbing her in all international forums as a habit. India started developing its nuclear program in 1961 or '62, maybe even earlier. My father was a minister in 1962 and he tried to get Pakistan to also start a program from 1962.In 1974, when the Indians detonated the nuclear device, my father announced at a press conference that Pakistan will develop a bomb "even if we have to eat grass."

She also revealed how impoverished Soviet scientists tried to sell enriched uranium to Pakistan in 1990 and how, in the process of rejecting their offer, she may have alerted vested interests in her own country to the existence of an international nuclear black market. Zia-ul Haq tried to tell everybody that he was not doing it for America, but for Islam and after defeating the Soviet Union he was going to defeat America and make Islam the greatest power in the world.

Bhutto was against the so-called "fundamentalist" element in the world. She claimed that fundamentalist elements colluding with the military regime were actually responsible for trying to export nuclear technology. According to her, Dr Khan is just a scapegoat.

Bhutto, who was prime minister between 1988 and 1990 and again between 1993 and 1996, takes credit for introducing a policy of nuclear restraint that she said was covertly undermined by these "Jihadi" elements. Her worry was that India with Russian weapons would nuclear attack Pakistan any day.

During her two terms in the office of Prime Minister in Pakistan, Benazir Bhutto, daughter of Zhulfikar Ali Bhutto who recently landed in Pakistan after ending her self exile and making a deal with General Musharraf regime, acquired wealth and cash worth a few hundred million dollars, most of which is located in Europe and Middle East. She in fact has institutionalized corruption and nepotism in Pakistan is such a way that it could not be altered even by the military ruler Musharraf.