Editorial
Benazir under siege
Terrorism is the real destroyer of democracy
Within a week of her celebrative homecoming turning bloody with a heinous carnage, Benazir Bhutto has received death threats from a female suicide squad suspected to be linked to terrorists groups like al-Qaeda. In the thicket of allegations about three senior government officials, or Jihadi loyalists of ex-president Ziaul Haq or extremists from Pakistan's restive tribal areas being behind the last week's suicide bomber attacks, investigations into them have got nowhere near identifying the culprits. As a result, the security risk on the life of former Pakistan prime minister and now chairperson Pakistan People's Party aggravates by the day.
She finds herself virtually under siege. With her movements restricted under security considerations, she is thinking of campaigning by phone to avoid violence, a fetter that does not bode well for the mass contact she needs to lead her party through the January elections regarded as key to restoration of democracy in Pakistan. Government has drawn a flak for their reported plan to ban large rallies in the run up to the forthcoming general elections.
Despite all the volatility of the political scenario before her, hopes are pinned on Benazir Bhutto's return to Pakistan after eight years of self-exile to give some direction to Pakistan politics. The period of her and Nawaz Sharif's exile saw military dictator Musharraf's grounds under his feet slipping away with the popular urge for return to democracy receiving a fillip through judicial intervention. The validity of Musharraf's election to presidency in uniform awaits adjudication at the Supreme Court. At a time like this, Pakistan needs congenial pre-election atmosphere for transition to democracy, more so when obscurantist forces and armed extremists are out to subvert any semblance of normalcy and order.
Ms Bhutto must be given all kinds of state security to pursue her political agenda and play her due role in bringing democracy back to Pakistan at this critical juncture of Pakistan's history.
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