Countdown of six weeks

There was little in President Pervez Musharraf8217;s speech on Wednesday night that could soothe the raw nerves of millions touched by Benazir Bhutto8217;s murder.

There was little in President Pervez Musharraf8217;s speech on Wednesday night that could soothe the raw nerves of millions touched by Benazir Bhutto8217;s murder. His assent to getting the Scotland Yard to come in and investigate the assassination, according to PPP co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari, comes too late. It comes at a time when all evidence which should have been preserved has long been washed clean from the scene of the crime in Rawalpindi.

It is worth mentioning that the slain leader had asked Musharraf to call in the Yard after an attack on her Karachi rally on October 18, but the request was denied. Party sources alleged, with justification, that Bhutto was never provided adequate security. These are lapses that will continue to cast a shadow over Bhutto8217;s death probe.

A pall of gloom continues to envelop Pakistan. Small memorial sites have propped up along the roadside in Rawalpindi, Lahore and other cities where people gather to lay wreaths in front of Bhutto8217;s picture; at a candlelight vigil held in Lahore, activists, joined by the city8217;s traders, named a major intersection after the leader.

On Wednesday night, many found Musharraf8217;s signature arrogant tone and tenor and the ungainly body language missing. But this was of little consolation as he went on to dwell on the damage done to the economy and the infrastructure amounting to billions of rupees caused by three days of rioting that ensued in the aftermath of Bhutto8217;s killing. His repeated reference to the extent of the violence reported from Sindh, Bhutto8217;s home province, did not go down well with the people for obvious reasons: in a country fractured by inter-provincial misgivings, one, much less the president himself, does not bring up such sensitivities.

This was by all means an extension of the bungling of the interior ministry8217;s initial explanation as to the cause of Bhutto8217;s death on December 27. The ridiculous theories had to be withdrawn in view of their total lack of credibility, which had further fanned public anger.

The president defended, with some justification, the postponement of elections from January 8 to February 18. Given the ransacking of the election commission offices by angry mobs across the country, logistics may simply not be in place by January 8 to hold the election as originally planned. This was a credible assessment, notwithstanding the PPP and the PML-Nawaz8217;s somewhat unrealistic demand that the polls be held in January. The postponement by 40 days is also in view of the upcoming holy month of Muharram when Shias across the country take out mourning processions to commemorate the martyrdom of Prophet Muhammad8217;s grandson, Hussain.

Meanwhile, a week after Pakistan8217;s most popular leader8217;s assassination, disgust is the word that continues to describe the overall public mood, even though life struggles to get back to normalcy. But it just isn8217;t the same country any more. The forthcoming election, without Bhutto around, will be less so.

Story continues below this ad

Pakistan politics once again lies in complete disarray. With Bhutto put out of the way, there is no leader to stand up to growing extremism. Musharraf has so far only identified, time and again, the seriousness of the threat posed to the state by religious fanatics 8212; read Al-Qaeda 8212; but he has been lacking Bhutto8217;s commitment to root out extremism as seen in the PPP leader8217;s last held election campaigns. That remains a very slippery ground on which to tread, for Musharraf, and for everyone else taking part in the February election.

Bhutto8217;s own party men, more specifically Zardari and Makhdoom Amin Fahim, the latter being designated as the PPP8217;s candidate for premiership, are not known to have the resolve to clearly enunciate their position on extremism. There is not a man in the fold of the party, save perhaps Aitzaz Ahsan, who would come out clean on what needs to be done to combat religious terrorism. Ahsan, however, remains under house arrest for his involvement in the lawyers8217; movement for the restoration of the judges sent packing by Musharraf on November 3.

More important, since Ahsan8217;s stance on the judiciary went beyond what Bhutto was willing to commit herself to, that is, an independent judiciary short of a reinstatement of the ousted judges, he has remained somewhat estranged from the mainstream of the PPP opinion. Having withdrawn his election nomination papers under pressure from the legal fraternity, and against the party decision to contest the polls, his would continue to be a lone and perhaps insignificant voice within the party.

The extremist threat posed to the country is real, and evading it is as dangerous as inviting more madness in the name of religion, especially at election time. Whether or not Bhutto was killed by Al-Qaeda or its sympathisers, it is for the investigating agencies to establish. The fact that religious insurgents are continuing to wreak havoc in parts of the Frontier province and holding the people there hostage to their designs does not need to be unmasked by a Sherlock Holmes.

The writer is an editor with Dawn, Karachi

murtazarazvihotmail.com