Friday, December 28, 2007
Pakistan After Bhutto
Less than a day after gun and bomb attacks killed Pakistan’s iconic opposition leader, Benazir Bhutto, her death has already spurred more violence in her fragile homeland. The New York Times reports that violence erupted in cities across Pakistan today, as hundreds of thousands marched in Bhutto’s ancestral village for her funeral procession. Several news outlets have quoted a report from the Italian news agency AKI that an al-Qaeda leader in Afghanistan claimed credit for Bhutto’s killing (CNN). Bhutto, the first woman to lead an Islamic state, hoped to win a third term as prime minister in critical parliamentary elections scheduled for January 8. Her death leaves pressing questions about whether the elections will run on schedule and how fair they will be. Already signs of political uncertainty and future troubles loom as analysts try to guess at Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf’s next move. Musharraf announced a three-day period of mourning (Bloomberg) for Bhutto. Pakistan’s current Prime Minister Mohammadmian Soomro announced December 28 that elections would be held as scheduled (NDTV) and urged Pakistanis to remain calm. But other news reports suggest a former prime minister, Nawaz Sharif, will boycott elections (AP). Before Bhutto's assassination, Sharif's supporters were also targeted (WashPost) in a different political rally in Islamabad. Bhutto’s death means the United States will have to rethink its strategy (NPR) for nudging forward democratization in Pakistan. It had been pushing for a deal between Musharraf and Bhutto in the hope that Bhutto’s return to power would lend legitamacy to Musharraf’s increasingly unpopular government. Despite the recent imposition of emergency rule by Musharraf, Washington remained optimistic about the January elections. In a media conference call following Bhutto's death, CFR Senior Fellow Daniel Markey said the elections had the potential to move the country forward toward a more manageable civilian-military partnership, adding that “Benazir would have been a significant part of that.” December 27th was a bad day for United States, he says, and it “will be paying a price for it for a while.”
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