KEY POINTS:
Belittling Benazir Bhutto had become fashionable. She was, said critics, a failure during her two terms as Prime Minister of Pakistan, less popular in her own country than infatuated foreign media supposed. But whatever the germs of truth in such claims, her assassination by a suicide bomber in Rawalpindi has put them in stark context. Above all, she represented Pakistan's best chance of restoring democracy, and the West's best chance of a strong ally against Muslim extremism.
Her death raises serious questions about the only Islamic nation with nuclear weapons. Shattered are the hopes of elections next month ushering in a stable coalition government headed by Bhutto and President Pervez Musharraf, the latter an increasingly unpopular figure who has made few inroads in the war on terror. Bhutto's mass appeal to Pakistan's poor was to be the catalyst for a liberal, pro-Western administration capable of fighting Muslim radicals.
Now, there is only danger and unpredictability. Bhutto's Pakistan People's Party was essentially her vehicle; there is no strong heir apparent. In any event, the elections have become untenable, especially since the third contender, former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, has announced a boycott. The West has little choice, in the short term at least, but to support Musharraf, the one remaining bulwark against fundamentalism.
The only winners are the fundamentalists of al Qaeda and the Taleban, either of which probably supplied the assassin. Religious tolerance has lost out to extremism. Bhutto's limitations may, again, have been laid bare in a third premiership. But there can be no doubting her bravery or her commitment to democracy. Or the grim situation following her death.
