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| Tense: A Pakistani paramilitary soldier stood guard Sunday during a protest by supporters of slain opposition leader Benazir
Bhutto. Akram Shahid/AP |
Bhutto's son and husband to lead party
Bilawal Bhutto, 19, would lead the Pakistan People's Party. The party intends to participate in Jan. 8 elections.
from the December 31, 2007 edition
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Whether Musharraf decides to delay the vote anyway is another question. Clearly, he wants his PML-Q to win. But experts suggest the chances of that happening in a free and fair election are virtually nonexistent. The second best option for Musharraf is a parliament with no majority, allowing him to play each faction off the other.
Until Bhutto's assassination, that seemed likely. Now, that outcome is less certain. Moreover, the current climate would make it much harder to rig the election if Musharraf wished. "Now, if the PPP finish second or third in the voting, there will be an almighty uproar," says Mr. Hassan.
Zardari also struck a combative note in calling for an international investigation into his wife's death. To be sure, Musharraf has only added to his problems with the way his government handled the aftermath of Bhutto's death.
Many critics wonder why the wreckage of the bomb blast was hosed away within hours. "You've got to allow forensics to come in there and collect evidence," says Ms. Jalal, the historian. Moreover, Sherry Rehman, a colleague of Bhutto's who was at the site of the explosion dismissed as "lies" any suggestion that Bhutto was killed by a blow to the head, saying she had seen a gunshot wound.
In a country weaned on conspiracy theories and political intrigue, where information and evidence are often scarce, "the perception matters as much as the reality," says Jalal. To many, the appearance is that the government is trying to protect itself.
By saying that Bhutto died from head trauma, the government is arguing that its security was sufficient – Bhutto simply made the mistake of putting her head through the open sunroof at the wrong time. It also has been seen as an attempt to puncture the growing legend of her martyrdom, making it seem a freak accident.
"People are furious about this," adds Jalal.
To others, it is merely the continuation of a nine-month-long trend of strategic missteps, beginning with the sacking of the chief justice of the Supreme Court in March. "This is a classic example of the government mishandling the situation as it has been for a good part of the year now," says Huma Shah, a freelance journalist.
"The government just isn't doing what it claims to be doing – what it should be doing," she says. "Instead it's directing all its energy in doing whatever it can to keep
itself in place."
The result is that Bhutto's assassination has not galvanized Pakistanis against terrorism the way the West might have hoped. "Subconsciously, people know" about the problems that terrorism presents, says Najam Sethi, a columnist for the Daily Times, an English-language newspaper in Lahore. "But they won't admit it because it distracts from the main point" – their more deeply ingrained distrust of government.
It is not that Pakistanis don't want to fight terrorism, experts add. Rather, it is that the lines have become so blurred that they do not know who the enemy is. If there were "some level of satisfaction with the government's investigation into the assassination," the country could perhaps look more closely at terrorism, says Talat Masood, a security analyst in Islamabad. But that is not happening, he says.
Therefore, the government's assertion that militant leader Baitullah Mahsud was behind the attack has been met with skepticism. "People here feel it's too pat to blame Al Qaeda," says historian Jalal. "They want answers."
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