Millions the world over were horrified to hear that Benazir Bhutto, the resilient leader of the Pakistan People’s Party, had been assassinated in Rawalpindi. Much has happened in the short days since her untimely death. Her 19 year old son has been crowned as her political successor and in the meanwhile her husband, the co-chairman of the Pakistan People’s Party Asif Ali Zardari, will be in charge of the party. Her son will be ineligible to run for office for another six years and because of this Benazir Bhutto has left a huge political vacuum in her wake.
The date of the Pakistani elections has also been delayed. Instead of being held on January 8th, they will now be held on February 18th. President Pervez Musharraf has admitted to being unsatisfied with the investigation looking into her death despite suspicious government reports claiming the blast of the attacker, not a gunshot wound, was responsible for her death. In the meantime he has invited a team of specialists from England’s Scotland Yard Metropolitan Police to investigate her assassination.
Postponing the election has caused a great deal of outrage as well as an increase in a loss of faith in the Pakistani government. Bhutto’s supporters in the PPP have claimed that Musharraf simply postponed the elections because his party felt he would lose the election in the wake of such a controversy and that they were worried the PPP would gain a great deal of sympathy votes. Musharraf’s representatives claim that holding an election in the wake of such a tragic assassination is out of the question because of the level of tension that has been created. With so many unanswered questions remaining, they feel the best course of action is the one that they have taken, delaying the vote.
In the wake of all this chaos the nagging question remains elusive, “Who killed Benazir Bhutto?” Such a question is never an easy one to answer when a political assassination is involved. There are still many in the United States who feel JFK’s assassination is an unsolved mystery so imagine trying to solve such a case in Pakistan. With accusations flying any and every direction, Benazir Bhutto’s murder will certainly be a challenge to solve and likely will always be a case with a big question mark stamped on it.
There are just too many theories out there to make a precise guess as to who had killed Bhutto. Angry members of the PPP first accused the United States of helping to arrange the assassination considering that they have been in bed with Musharraf, who is essentially a dictator who came to power through a military coup. Although the emotions may be correct, the logic is quite flawed. Especially in the last year, the relationship between the Bush administration and Musharraf has become strained. Pakistan has agreed to partner up with the US against the “war on terror” but as not been fulfilling many of the obligations they said that they would in Waziristan. Waziristan is the mountainous region of Pakistan that borders Afghanistan and is the source of power for Al-Qaeda being that they get many recruits as well as arms through Waziristan into Afghanistan.
Musharraf has been reluctant to move into Waziristan with a full force because his power and stability relies on at least a cordial relationship with the citizens of Waziristan. The United States viewed Bhutto as a viable future partner in the “war on terror” and also felt that if she were elected it would stand as testament to Pakistan’s ability to hold a fair and transparent democratic election. Obviously it’s impossible to be 100% sure that there was no US involvement, but the odds that they were involved at all are quite low.
Musharraf, on the other hand, is a person that certainly stood to gain something from Bhutto’s death. The original elections, which were to be held January 8th, were looking grim for President Musharraf. Bhutto’s return to Pakistan had galvanized a huge swathe of support for her because many Pakistanis have become unhappy with Musharraf. She has also been the leader of Pakistan on two separate occasions and was the heiress to a powerful political family. Killing Bhutto, or at least creating a situation where it would be possible for an outsider to do the job, is not totally out of the question. Yet, one has to consider the implications of an assassination of such magnitude.
Since Bhutto’s death Pakistan has been in utter turmoil. Pakistan is one of the most volatile countries in the world and the last thing a contentious leader wants to do is assassinate his closest rival right before an election. Musharraf came into power through a coup and knows how easily the tides of power can shift in that country. Furthermore he knows that he is not in the best light of the United States government and most people in many countries do not support the man. The last thing he needs is a foreign investigation team to pinpoint the source of the attack to him or people close to him. Perhaps people within the ISI (Inter-Services Intelligence) helped set up the attack. Even so it doesn’t mean Musharraf had knowledge of it. Let us not forget that Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl was led to his captors by a member of the ISI. There is always the possibility that he indirectly allowed it to happen but he certainly was not the mastermind behind the attack.
It is the opinion of this journalist that the most likely culprit is some sort of extremist religious group. It is no secret that many in the United States were hoping Bhutto would win the Pakistani presidency. Being that Pakistan is such a turbulent, yet important country; many felt that having a moderate woman as president would be crucial in convincing the world that Pakistan is an open and stable country. Before arriving to Pakistan, the US had been catering to her trying to convince her to team up with Musharraf. Many religious groups such as Al-Qaeda as well as dozens of others had more than enough reason to want to assassinate her. In fact, the moment she arrived in Pakistan after her self-imposed exile, a suicide bomber blew himself up among the masses missing Bhutto but taking roughly 120 innocent lives with him.
Assassinating Bhutto, from their perspective, would cause turmoil in Pakistan. Well, Bhutto is now dead and the country is in chaos. Such a situation is ripe for major power shifts and it is no secret that there is a strong extremist movement currently in Pakistan. The religious parties control huge swaths of the country and are becoming stronger every day. If anybody truly stood to gain from this barbarous act, it is this writer’s opinion that it in some way involved politico-religious forces within Waziristan.
The current investigation going on in Pakistan will hopefully yield enlightening insights into her death. Although Bhutto had a political history fraught with corruption and drama there was much hope placed on her shoulders. Bhutto’s death is surely saddening and the prospects of what could now happen are frightening. We must all pray for the well-being of this unstable nuclear-armed country, pray for peace and prosperity.
