Benazir assassination and
Pakistan: a dangerous trail
As rioting spreads across Pakistani cities, an isolated Musharraf administration will be tempted to hit out with blind repression which will push Pakistan closer to the edge of chaos, even possibly disintegration. The problem for the rest of the world is that Pakistan has nuclear weapons.
Washington has for long had a single-point agenda of relying on the Pakistani military, even though the country's Islamisation began under the watch of General Zia-ul-Haq and it became a haven for al-Qaeda under General Musharraf.
To tackle terror Pakistan needs a legitimate and popular government and the focus has to shift from personalities to institutions and processes. The holding of credible elections under present conditions looks unlikely. There has to be at least a medium-term plan in which the international community should be involved, to bridge this divide.
Gopal Sengupta
Canada
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It was a terrible tragedy. Instability in nuclear Pakistan is very dangerous for the world. Right from the day Pakistan was born none of their leaders, including Benazir Bhutto herself, gave a chance to institutions of good governance to take roots in that country. None of its leaders till date had any vision for that country. The best that their leaders could deliver was one fiery speech in flawless English at the UN and that's about it. They all contributed fuel to the instability of Pakistan one way or another. I wonder if they would take any lessons from history and put Pakistan on the right track; I wonder if we in Bangladesh would take any lessons from our own turbulent 36-year history of instability. Nevertheless, any killing is condemnable. I condemn Benazir Bhutto's assassination.
Syed
Old DOHS, Dhaka
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Once again the hope for transition to democratic rule in Pakistan has been denied by the assassination of Benazir Bhutto. The assassination of a brave leader of the Muslim world sent us to soul-searching. While going through the cycle of events set by the Pakistani military officers from time to time, we see a striking similarity in the pattern with those being staged in Bangladesh. This is awful and disturbing.
MH Khan
On e-mail
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The world is still absorbing the aftermath of the assassination of Benazir Bhutto. We are getting conflicting reports in the world media concerning the tragic incident. The stories are puzzling and not helping us to get the actual fact. The other day the BBC Bengali service correctly mentioned that in these conflicting reports, it is difficult to make any definitive conclusion and pinpoint the killers
In the TV talk shows we can hear a common question to the hosts. What lesson Bangladesh should learn from Pakistani tragic incident? The answer is simply to initiate a dialogue with the politicians and the political parties to obtain a national guideline for our effort to re-establish democratic order: holding national election first and as soon as possible.
A reader
On e-mail
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A good ploy by the axis of 'democracy' to foment anarchy, make the excuse of human safety to capture and be the ultimate custodian of Pakistan's nuclear arsenal.
SM Shahidullah
DU
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Like many other people I am always against dynastic politics. Dynastic politics and democracy does not go together especially in the underdeveloped nations where the roots of democracy is not very deep rooted. Any political party that favours dynastic politics does not allow the growth of a divergent political leadership. This is a cheap ploy to maintain grip on a political process. In vastly illiterate societies where a little favour can purchase one's morality this dynastic politics is big barrier for the success of democracy.
In India after the death of Jawaharlal Nehru he left an able daughter to do his job. But unfortunately things did not go very well. India had to experience an emergency rule and her elder son Sanjay brought very bad name for his mother. The other son Rajeev Gandhi was more sober than his brother but his tragic death abruptly ended that exercise. In Bangladesh Sheikh Mujibur Rahman could not do a very good job despite his very patriotic fervour and his daughter also gave a very poor show and things are not going to be any dramatically different if she comes back to power again.
The choice of Asif Ali Zardari and his 19 years old son are not going to show any magic in anyway. The tragic death of Benazir Bhutto is still very green in our memory and therefore any critical analysis of her political life would be a disrespectful act at this time. But we can only say that her husband does not fit into the ideals of democracy in any way. He is a crude feudal land lord with a very bad record behind him.
Pakistan is not going to be an easy task for any political leader to rule. Pakistan has become a global board of chess experiencing various clashes of global interests. These antagonistic interests are bloody and disastrous too. The nation is fragmented, parts of the land are ungovernable and there is a direct challenge to the sovereignty from the Islamic terrorists. I don't think Asif Ali Zardari has any clue of these grave issues nor he has any intellectual ability to understand the gravity of these issues facing Pakistan. He will not even survive in the current political sympathy which PPP is enjoying now.
Akbar Hussain
Canada
