Bhutto Vows To Remain

In the news moments ago, Pakistani police took three people in for questioning on Saturday over an attack on former premier Benazir Bhutto's homecoming procession that killed 139 people, an investigator said. The men were linked to a car from which an attacker threw a grenade in Karachi on Thursday night, seconds before a suicide bomber blew himself up in a crowd of hundreds of thousands of people, he said.

It would seem that even though Mrs. Bhutto left Pakistan under a cloud of scandal and corruption,that For the thousands of singing and dancing supporters who flocked to this raucous Karachi street to greet her, the corruption charges against Ms. Bhutto or her willingness to ally herself with an unpopular president don't seem to matter.



Hours later, the celebratory atmosphere in Karachi was shattered when two bomb blasts killed at least 139 bystanders and wounded about 500 more.

In recent weeks, Bhutto has alienated many Pakistanis by her dealings with President Pervez Musharraf, which were seen as driven by Washington's desire to bolster a moderate South Asian government in its fight against Islamic extremism. They have also, at least for the moment, cleared her of charges that she stole millions from Pakistan in the 1990s. But Thursday's triumphant return is a reminder that much of Pakistani politics is personality and pageantry. And charisma alone might be enough for Bhutto. It is a calculus born of experience, banking on her ability to turn decades-old allegiances to her family name and home state into votes. But heading into the campaign season for January parliamentary elections, the strategy carries new risks, experts say: Pakistan is changing, becoming more politically sophisticated as a raft of news channels plays an increasingly important role in shaping public opinion.


Musharraf's precipitous decline in popularity is partly due to his close ties to Washington, which supports Musharraf as a crucial ally in the war against terrorism. The Bush administration has also come out in support of Musharraf's alliance with Bhutto as a hedge against the rising influence of Islamic extremism. Her arrival Thursday was Bhutto's attempt to change the momentum against her, and the event showcased her greatest strengths: her celebrity and the organizational capabilities of her Pakistan People's Party (PPP). Buses lined Karachi streets for miles, and festive street scenes made the decaying port city seem more like Rio than the Arabian Sea coast, with boomboxes blaring music from every region of Pakistan, and one motorcycle broadcasting old Bhutto speeches from its makeshift speakers.

She is brave, because she knew that coming here was going to bring death and destruction,and she chose to return anyway to assist her country and herself. She obviously, is similar to our own Clinton's in being Machievellian to attain their goals.

Most of the support for her is because of her father , who was hanged for political resons 28 years ago.The sentiment is widespread in the crowd, and it points to the feudal nature of politics here. As the daughter of Zulfikar, Benazir has inherited the devotion that he won from many of Pakistan's poor. And as a daughter of the state of Sindh, she can expect to sweep the rural parts of the state in elections. These are the two constituencies that experts expect her to woo in the coming months. There is a logic to the strategy of playing on her father's name and her Sindhi heritage. If she succeeds, the electoral math suggests she may be able to cobble together enough votes to be the leading partner in a coalition government – winning her the prime minister's seat.

There are many other obstacles to Mrs. Bhutto, besides the terrorist assassination threats and attempts. First is the Supreme Court, which still must rule on whether Musharraf was a legal candidate for the presidential elections he won more than a week ago. A decision is expected soon. If he is declared invalid retroactively, Pakistan's political establishment would be thrown into chaos, and any deals Bhutto struck with Musharraf would be useless. The Supreme Court could also have a say in this matter, too. It will look into whether the amnesty deal Bhutto made with Musharraf is illegal. If it rules against Bhutto, the decision would make her vulnerable to cases charging that she and her husband embezzled money from the government and put it in Swiss bank accounts. There is a report that in one case, a Swiss judge had finished his investigation into the money-laundering charges and would present his findings to a prosecutor next week.

There is also fear that even if Bhutto survives these challenges, her political maneuverings have antagonized those who created the conditions for her return: the middle class. The anti-Musharraf movement that has roiled Pakistan in recent months is largely a secular, liberal, middle-class phenomenon, a group which, in the past, often went along with Bhutto as the Western-educated, left-of-center candidate. But it has turned against her since she began to deal with Musharraf. The president is seen by many here as a US-backed puppet, making Bhutto's arrangement with him appear to be a cynical political gambit to secure her own political future.

In a telephone interview that is being played around the world the two leaders vowed to fight terrorism and extremism. President Pervez Musharraf and Pakistan People's Party Chairperson Benazir Bhutto have expressed their resolve to fight extremism and terrorism, both leaders agreed that there is a need for the entire nation to unite to rid the country of these evil violent fanatics.

There is going to be more violence, before it gets better. The hope is that with her return, she can help put a loss of power by President Musharraf, who even with all of his faults, is one of the few leaders standing with us in this fight with radicalism and terrorism. If we lose Pakistan, we lose a country and that missiles and nuclear weapons, and we surely do not want those type of weapons in the hands of al-Qaeda or the Taliban!! We wouldn't have to worry about an improvised "dirty" bomb, as they would have access to the Real thing, and "All Hell Would Break Loose". We have seen how the rhetoric continues to rise against Iran by Bush, could you imagine what we would do if a nuclear country was going to fall into the "enemies" hands!! Can anyone say "Armaggedon"! Perhaps that would not be the case, but the likehood would surely increase exponentially!

Hopefully, the Pakistani's will bring the people behind this attack to a swift and sure justice, and I pray that the government had nothing to do with the attack! If it was al-Qaeda, it will help unite the people against them, and that would be a great outcome.

Let's all keep our fingers crossed and hope for an outcome that keeps Pakistan out of the loss column.




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