The last hurrah for Al Qaeda? Suggestions supporters of Pervez Musharraf committed the crime. Sixteen killed as suicide bomber shoots Benazir in chest and neck, then blows himself up.
"It is the act of those who want to disintegrate Pakistan because she was symbol of unity. They have finished the Bhutto family. They are enemies of Pakistan," senior Bhutto party official Farzana Raja said.
Benazir had been the first female PM of any Islamic nation. She was an alumni of Harvard and Oxford. A classmate of radio 2GB presenter Alan Jones. A moderate who was committed to saving Pakistan from the scourge of extremism.
Her assassination may be viewed as an opportunity for US Democrats and UN liberals to criticize the US President, but how remains a mystery.
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Update:
In an early act of leadership, Australian PM decides to do nothing. Defence minister Fitzgibbon claims Australian defence forces at 'Full stretch.'
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Update:
The assassination has occurred within days of Brit MI6 agents being expelled from Afghanistan for holding talks with the Taliban. This will be an embarrassment to UK PM Brown who has been committed to losing the war on terror.
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Update:
Hicks has not yet been questioned over his opinion of the assassination. However, he is to be released today, having fought for the (likely) assassins. Naturally, Centerlink will provide support commensurate with his status.
Also, Dr Keith Suter has started the attacks on President Bush, saying "It is a terrible end to a terrible year for the US President." Mr Suter ignores the remarkable turnaround in Iraq after the US President, almost alone, persisted with the cause, while the US Democrats begged him to give up.
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Bhutto killed in suicide attack
By Augustine Anthony
PAKISTANI opposition leader Benazir Bhutto was killed in a gun and bomb attack after a rally in the city of Rawalpindi today, her party said.
"She has been martyred," party official Rehman Malik said.
Mrs Bhutto, 54, died in hospital in Rawalpindi. Ary-One Television said she had been shot in the head.
Police said a suicide bomber fired shots at Mrs Bhutto as she was leaving the rally venue in a park before blowing himself up.
"The man first fired at Bhutto's vehicle. She ducked and then he blew himself up," police officer Mohammad Shahid said.
Police said 16 people had been killed in the blast.
"It is the act of those who want to disintegrate Pakistan because she was symbol of unity. They have finished the Bhutto family. They are enemies of Pakistan," senior Bhutto party official Farzana Raja said.
Witnesses said they heard gunshots before fatal blast
A witness at the scene of the attack said he had heard two shots moments before the blast. Another witness saw bodies and a mutilated human head strewn on a road outside the park where she held her rally.
A spokesman for President Pervez Musharraf said he had to confirm the news before commenting. Earlier, party officials had said Mrs Bhutto was safe.
A suicide bomber killed nearly 150 people in an attack on Mrs Bhutto on October 19 as she paraded through the southern city of Karachi on her return from eight years in self-imposed exile.
Islamist militants were blamed for that attack but Mrs Bhutto had said she was prepared to face the danger to help the country.
People cried and hugged each other outside the hospital where she died and residents of Karachi, her home town, said they had heard gun shots after news of Mrs Bhutto's death spread, apparently from her enraged supporters.
Mrs Bhutto, a hardened political campaigner in dangerous times
Mrs Bhutto's father, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, was Pakistan's first popularly elected prime minister. He was executed in 1979 after being deposed in a military coup.
Mrs Bhutto became the first female prime minister in the Muslim world when she was elected in 1988 at the age of 35. She was deposed in 1990, re-elected in 1993, and ousted again in 1996 amid charges of corruption and mismanagement.
She said the charges were politically motivated but in 1999 chose to stay in exile rather than face them.
Mrs Bhutto's family is no stranger to violence.
Both of her brothers died in mysterious circumstances and she had said al-Qaida assassins tried to kill her several times in the 1990s.
Intelligence reports have said al-Qaida, the Taliban and Pakistani jihadi groups have sent suicide bombers after her.
Grief, condemnation, fear follow 'odious attack'
from news.com.au
PAKISTAN opposition leader Nawaz Sharif vowed to "fight your war from now on" after the assassination of Benazir Bhutto and said he shared the grief of "the entire nation".
A shaken Mr Sharif was speaking outside the hospital where Mrs Bhutto, 54, died in a suicide attack after a campaign rally for next month's parliamentary elections.
"I assure you that I will fight your war from now on," he told Mrs Bhutto's supporters, who were crying and wailing outside the hospital in the city of Rawalpindi.
"I share your sorrow and grief along with the entire nation," Mr Sharif said.
France on describing the assassination as an "odious act".
A statement by Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner's office said he "presents his condolences to her family, to the victims of this attack and to the Pakistani people".
"He strongly condemns this odious act. He salutes the memory of Mrs Bhutto, an eminent figure in Pakistani politics," the statement said.
Supporters of Mrs Bhutto in the United Arab Emirates expressed shock and grief.
"I'm so sad. I feel that my own sister is dead," said Zubeir Bashir, Middle East spokesman for Mrs Bhutto's Pakistan People's Party.
"This is a big tragedy for Pakistan. This is a very big shock for us," he said as he headed to the Bhutto family home in Dubai, chosen by the former prime minister as a residence during her eight years in exile.
Mr Bashir said that members of Mrs Bhutto's family who had remained in Dubai after her return to her homeland in October were already on their way to Pakistan.
Mohammed Akran Farooqi, the PPP's leader in the UAE, choked with emotion as he tried to express his grief over the killing.
"I can't say anything... I'm totally upset," he said.
Both the United States and Russia condemned the attack.
"The attack shows that there are still those in Pakistan trying to undermine reconciliation and democratic development in Pakistan," a US State Department official said.
The killing of Pakistani opposition leader Benazir Bhutto could trigger a wave of terror in the country, a top Russian diplomat said.
"An act of terror is a bad sign," Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Losyukov, Russia's most senior Asia diplomat, told Itar-Tass news agency.
"We hereby offer our condolences. This will for certain trigger a wave of terrorism."
The political life of Benazir Bhutto, 54
Background of Benazir Bhutto, former prime minister of Pakistan who was assassinated by a suicide bomber overnight (AEDT).
* Benazir Bhutto was born on June 21, 1953, into a wealthy landowning family. Her father, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, founded the Pakistan People's Party (PPP) and was president and later prime minister of Pakistan from 1971 to 1977.
* After gaining degrees in politics at Harvard and Oxford universities, she returned to Pakistan in 1977, just before the military seized power from her father. She inherited the leadership of the PPP after her father's execution in 1979 under military ruler General Mohammad Zia-ul-Haq.
* First voted in as prime minister in 1988, Bhutto was sacked by the then-president on corruption charges in 1990. She took power again in 1993 after her successor, Nawaz Sharif, was forced to resign after a row with the president. Bhutto was no more successful in her second spell as prime minister and Sharif was back in power by 1996.
* In 1999, both Bhutto and her husband, Asif Ali Zardari, were sentenced to five years in jail and fined $US8.6 million ($A9.86 million) on charges of taking kickbacks from a Swiss company hired to fight customs fraud. A higher court later overturned the conviction as biased. Bhutto, who had made her husband investment minister during her period in office from 1993 to 1996, was abroad at the time of her conviction and chose not to return to Pakistan.
* Geneva lawyers for Bhutto said last month they had lodged an appeal in a Swiss inquiry into alleged money laundering by Bhutto and her husband. The motion filed with Geneva's criminal appeals court could lead to hearings in the long-running case, but not before early 2008.
* In 2006 she joined an Alliance for the Restoration of Democracy with her arch-rival Sharif, but the two disagreed over strategy for dealing with military President Pervez Musharraf. Bhutto decided it was better to negotiate with Musharraf, while Sharif refused to have any dealings with the general.
* Bhutto returned to Pakistan in October 2007 from eight years of self-imposed exile after Musharraf, with whom she had been negotiating over Pakistan's transition to civilian-led democracy, granted her protection from prosecution in old corruption cases. On her return, as she was driving through Karachi, a suicide bomber struck killing 139 supporters and members of her security team.
* On December 26, Bhutto vowed to fight for workers' rights as she took her campaign for January general elections to an industrial belt near the capital.
US military beefs up Pakistan force
By Bruce Loudon
US Special Forces are to increase their presence in Pakistan amid assessments that the country is to become the central battlefield for al-Qaida as it is driven from Iraq.
"Pakistan should be carefully watched because it could prove to be a significant flashpoint in the coming year," US think tank Strategic Forecasting said in an evaluation of al-Qaida's tactics as the Islamist group comes under mounting pressure in Iraq.
With the "rapid spread of Talibanisation" in Pakistan's insurgent northwest, the country would become "especially important if the trend in Iraq continues to go against the jihadis and they are driven from Iraq", the assessment said.
"As the global headquarters for the al-Qaida leadership, Pakistan has long been a significant stronghold on the ideological battlefield. If the trend towards radicalisation continues, the country could become the new centre of gravity for the jihadi movement on the physical battlefield."
The Stratfor assessment coincided with reports from Washington suggesting US Special Forces would expand their presence in Pakistan in the new year.
The boost in US forces was part of an effort to train and support Pakistan's army in its fight to stem the al-Qaida and Taliban-linked insurgency.
The Washington reports reflected Pentagon frustration with the Pakistani counter-insurgency effort, and said the head of the US Special Operations Command, Admiral Eric T. Olson, had made a series of visits to the country for discussions with senior military leaders.
"The first US (Special Forces) personnel could be on the ground in Pakistan early in the new year", the report said.
US Central Command chief Admiral William Fallon said the US forces would provide training and mentoring based on the US experience with the insurgencies in Iraq and Afghanistan.
No immediate independent confirmation of the deployment was available in Islamabad. But the US reports coincided with the disclosure of an ambitious 15-year "anti-terror investment plan" for Pakistan that has been high on the agenda of US Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte in recent visits to Islamabad.
According to reports in Pakistan, areas in the North West Frontier Province, the federally administered tribal areas, Baluchistan and Pakistan-controlled Kashmir were earmarked for investment that would boost education and employment in an effort to wean local tribesmen away from their support for the jihadi movement.
The area, seen as crucial in the battle against al-Qaida and the Taliban, was the subject of a summit meeting in Islamabad involving President Pervez Musharraf and his Afghan counterpart, Hamid Karzai.
The two leaders held what sources described as "unusually cordial and friendly" meetings on how to boost co-operation in the war against the jihadis. They agreed to intensify their exchanges of intelligence, something Mr Musharraf described as "the key to fighting and enhancing our capability against terrorists and extremists".
Mr Karzai said: "Afghanistan and Pakistan are twins. More than that, they are joined at the body."
Security effort at full stretch: Fitzgibbon
By Patricia Karvelas
THE Rudd Government has categorically ruled out allowing Australian troops to shoulder more of the security burden in Afghanistan as it prepares to play a leading role with the US in developing a new military strategy for the war-torn country.
Defence ministers representing the eight nations with military forces stationed in the south will meet in Canada late next month to sign off on a new military strategy that will be pushed at a NATO meeting in April.
Fresh from a trip to Iraq and Afghanistan with Kevin Rudd, Defence Minister Joel Fitzgibbon yesterday ruled out Australian troops taking up a greater security role after the Dutch decided to withdraw their entire 1600-strong force from Oruzgan province by 2010.
However, the Rudd Government has vowed to maintain the fight against the Taliban.
Mr Fitzgibbon said Australia, with about 1000 personnel in the country could not play a leading security role in a war he feared could be lost without a dramatic change in strategy. He said the strategy he would pursue would give NATO countries a renewed sense of hope and allow one of them to take the senior role in the area where Australian forces are fighting.
"We just can't be playing a lead role in Afghanistan, particularly when we are already so overstretched and there are so many potential contingencies in our own backyard where we will need to play a lead role," he said.
"If we can demonstrate that we have a strategy and things are going well in Afghanistan, sometime in the near future then The Netherlands parliament might take a different view and stick around. Alternatively it will be easier to get alternative participants," he said.
"We have no intention of sending additional people or resources to Afghanistan just so some NATO country can make a lesser contribution. If other NATO countries are prepared to make a greater contribution, then we would consider any request to do more, but not in the absence of that greater contribution by them."
His comments came as the UN mission in Afghanistan protested against the Afghan Government's decision to expel two senior European diplomats accused of holding unauthorised meetings with the Taliban.
One diplomat worked for the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan and the other was the acting head of the European Union mission.
Mr Fitzgibbon said he could not comment on the case of the expelled diplomats because he did not know all the circumstances. "I suspect it's a question of definitions. Negotiating with extremists is a much different thing than establishing dialogue with moderates," he said.
A senior source said next month's meeting of defence ministers would be held in Canada because the Canadians needed help convincing their citizens troops should stay in Afghanistan.
Mr Fitzgibbon said the submission signed off in Canada would be put to the NATO meeting in the Romanian capital of Bucharest in April.
"The document will inlude the strategy we think they should be embracing," he said. "I am determined that it would be unacceptable to expect a medium-sized non-NATO country like Australia so remote from Afghanistan to be playing a lead role.
"My worst nightmare is that NATO keeps bumbling along in Afghanistan, people continue to lose their lives without clear progress, and the domestic pressures become so great on a whole range of NATO countries that they slowly but surely start to withdraw or wind down their numbers."
Brown to feel the heat over expelled diplomats
By Katherine Haddon
CLAIMS that top officials talked to the Taliban in Afghanistan threatened fresh embarrassment for British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, who had previously ruled out negotiations with the militia.
Two senior officials, the second most senior European Union official in the country and a top United Nations political adviser, have been expelled by the Afghan government amid claims they had contacts with the Taliban.
A newspaper report, which claimed that agents from Secret Intelligence Service MI6 repeatedly met Taliban representatives earlier this year, sparked sharp criticism of Mr Brown from some quarters.
Opponents said the stories threw into question the policy of not talking to the Taliban outlined by the PM, who has faced a rocky year-end over issues including the Northern Bank crisis and the loss of millions of families' personal details by a government department.
They have also sparked wider debate on whether it is acceptable to talk to militia fighting fierce battles against over 7000 British troops in Afghanistan as part of an international force.
Earlier this month, Brown ruled out direct talks with the Taliban, telling lawmakers: "We will not enter into any negotiations with these people."
He added, though, that he supported Afghan President Hamid Karzai's efforts at reconciliation, adding that there was a place in society for former insurgents if they were prepared to renounce violence.
The main opposition Conservatives now want Brown to clarify this position, their defence spokesman Liam Fox said: "We cannot negotiate with people who are killing our troops."
But many commentators and newspapers have come out in favour of engagement, highlighting that the Taliban contains extreme and moderate elements, the latter of which could be persuaded to commit to reconciliation.
Some also drew parallels with Northern Ireland, where talks with extremists has yielded peace and saw former arch-foes from the Republican and Unionist sides united in a devolved government formed in May.
Britain's Daily Telegraph editorial said the coalition, which features over 7000 British troops, had reached a military stalemate and Brown should not rule out talking to the Taliban.
The editorial added that all contacts "should be closely co-ordinated with Mr Karzai's government".
"Reconciliation may well entail talking to rebel leaders, as Mr Karzai has already realised," it said.
"Rather than shying from that, Mr Brown should explain to the electorate why it could be part of a mix of military pressure and economic incentive in undermining the authority of such diehards as Mullah Omar."
Jason Burke, a journalist who has written a book on al-Qaida, wrote in the Guardian that talks between the West and the Taliban were nothing new. US government envoys met representatives as early as 1998 and third-party contacts continued in the run-up to the 2001 war, he said.
"Frankly, this is just about the only strategy left," he wrote. "The Taliban may be far from victory, but we are far from success."
Bhutto murder sparks violent protests
from news.com.au
PAKISTAN put its paramilitary forces on "red alert" across the country after the assassination of opposition leader Benazir Bhutto sparked violent protests by her supporters.
President Pervez Musharraf denounced what he called a terrorist attack and appealed for calm after angry backers of the slain former prime minister took to the streets across Pakistan, from the Himalayas to the southern coast.
The unrest was predictably fiercest in her native Sindh province and its capital, Karachi.
"Police in Sindh have been put on red alert," a senior police official said. "We have increased deployment and are patrolling in all the towns and cities, as there is trouble almost everywhere."
Reports said security was deteriorating in Karachi, where thousands poured on to the streets to protest. At least three banks, a government office and a post office were set on fire, a witness said.
Tyres were set on fire on many roads, and shooting and stone-throwing was reported in many places. Most shops and markets in the city shut down.
At least 20 vehicles were torched in the central Sindh town of Hyderabad.
There were also small protests in Rawalpindi and the nearby capital, Islamabad.
Protesters blocked roads with burning tyres and chanted slogans against President Pervez Musharraf in Muzaffarabad, capital of Pakistani Kashmir in the mountainous north.
Police said they had been ordered to block the main road between Punjab province and Sindh province, apparently to stop the movement of protesters.
Disturbances were also reported in the southeastern city of Multan, although details were sketchy. In the eastern city of Lahore, Bhutto party workers burnt three buses and damaged several other vehicles, police said.
Trouble was reported from the interior of Sindh province, including the Bhutto ancestral home at Larkana, police said.
"The situation is not good in the interior of Sindh. A large number of people have come out on the roads in many cities to protest," senior police official Fayyaz Leghari said.
Angry mob torches KFC in unrest over Benazir Bhutto slaying
from news.com.au
AN angry mob has torched a branch of US fast-food giant KFC in the unrest following the killing of populist opposition leader Benazir Bhutto.
A policeman who was shot on Thursday has died of his injuries, officials said, bringing the death toll from the rioting to 11.
Witnesses said an angry mob also torched a petrol station and several vehicles.
They said sporadic gunfire was heard throughout the night in the city's Liyari slum but there were no reports of casualties.
Many people were stranded at Karachi airport because most cabs were not driving. All petrol stations were closed.
Bhutto death explanation 'pack of lies'
from news.com.au
A TOP aide to slain Pakistan opposition leader Benazir Bhutto has rejected the government's explanation of her death as a "pack of lies".
The Pakistan interior ministry said Bhutto died when she hit her head on her vehicle's sunroof as she ducked after a gun and suicide attack on a campaign rally, and that no bullets or shrapnel were found in her.
"It is baseless. It is a pack of lies,'' said Farooq Naik, Bhutto's top lawyer and a senior official in her Pakistan People's Party.
"Two bullets hit her, one in the abdomen and one in the head.
"Bhutto's personal secretary Naheed Khan and party official Makhdoom Amin Fahim were in the car and they saw what happened.
"It is an irreparable loss and they are turning it into a joke with such claims. The country is heading towards civil war.''
Interior ministry spokesman Javed Cheema said earlier that the post-mortem on the populist opposition leader found her mortal wound came when she tried to duck after the bomber attacked.
He said the bomber fired at her but missed, and that her critical injury came when she hit the lever of the sunroof of the car she was in, as she waved to supporters after a campaign rally on Thursday.
"The lever struck near her right ear and fractured her skull,'' Cheema said.
"There was no bullet or metal shrapnel found in the injury.''
He said intelligence services intercepted a call from a top al-Qaeda figure for Pakistan, Baitullah Mehsud, who he said was behind the attack as well as a suicide bombing on Bhutto's homecoming rally in October that killed 139 people.
"The government is now claiming that Baitullah Mehsud is responsible,'' Naik said. "What is the evidence?''
He added: "She was taken to hospital. She was bleeding. It was a serious security lapse.''
Bhutto's death has unleashed a wave of unrest in Pakistan, with at least 33 people killed and countless buildings and vehicles torched.
Hundreds of thousands of people attended her funeral Friday.
Many mourners blamed President Pervez Musharraf, whose popularity has been plummeting, for at the least failing to protect her.
The government has said that Bhutto had been given warnings that Islamist militants were out to get her. Cheema, the interior ministry spokesman, told AFP earlier Friday that Bhutto was on an Al-Qaeda "hit list''.
Bhutto death rocks Afghan hopes for alliance
By Bronwen Roberts
BENAZIR Bhutto's death has rocked the Afghan Government, which had seen in her the chance of a closer alliance with Pakistan against extremism despite her links to the Taliban's creation.
Afghan President Hamid Karzai met Ms Bhutto for talks during a state visit to Pakistan just hours before she was killed on Thursday in a shooting and suicide bombing.
The President later described Ms Bhutto's death as a big loss and blamed those who were afraid of her strength and vision, while Pakistan's Government pointed the finger at al-Qaeda.
"We were shocked," said President Karzai's chief spokesman Homayun Hamidzada.
Ms Bhutto had understood the difficulties neighbouring Afghanistan and Pakistan faced amid a wave of unrest in both countries, including a spike in suicide attacks, Mr Hamidzada said.
"She said if she was re-elected she would work closely with the international community and the Government of Afghanistan to address their common threats of terrorism and extremism," he said.
Ms Bhutto's Pakistan People's Party has been the frontrunner in the election due on January 8.
"She had good relations with us," said foreign ministry spokesman Sultan Ahmad Baheen, whereas observers have described President Karzai's relationship with Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf as improving but testy.
"It is very disappointing for us to see her absence from the Pakistan political scene," said Davood Moradian, a foreign ministry adviser.
Kabul had been looking forward to Ms Bhutto giving voice to the moderate Muslims of Pakistan, he said.
"But we are hoping that the way she was murdered by terrorists will provide momentum for the international community to see a long-term solution to the problems."
'One democratic force'
The Afghan Government had seen in Ms Bhutto the "one major democratic force" in Pakistan, a senior government official said on condition of anonymity.
"It was not just the Government of Afghanistan that was putting a lot of hope on her, it was the whole world," he said.
She was committed to fighting extremists and to controlling the fundamentalist religious schools that spawn militants, he said, adding she also wanted to raise awareness of the consequences of extremism.
"Of course she had a troubled past, but looking ahead - she was one of the few credible Pakistan alternatives."
The Taliban took up arms in chaotic southern Afghanistan and swept to power with funding and support from Pakistan's military during Ms Bhutto's second term as prime minister, between 1993 and 1996.
Author Steve Coll says in his book on Afghanistan - Ghost Wars - that Ms Bhutto had admitted in a 2002 interview to supporting the movement, which Pakistan initially used to protect a trade route.
"I became slowly, slowly sucked into it," Ms Bhutto is quoted as saying.
"It started out with a little fuel, then it became machinery."
The support grew and Pakistan went on to become one of only three countries that supported the Islamic regime as it gave sanctuary to al-Qaeda.
A US-led invasion drove out the Taliban government because it refused to hand over al-Qaeda leaders for the September 11 terrorist attacks, and militant leaders are believed to have fled to Pakistan.
Analyst Waheed Mujda said Ms Bhutto's death would likely trigger more unrest in Pakistan.
He said that "obviously Pakistan would try to shift the violence from their country to Afghanistan".
"We've seen in the past mullahs telling young fighters to go to Afghanistan for jihad (holy war) and they've done so," he said.
Darkness closes in on Pakistan
Piers Akerman
THE ABC’s The Chaser program drew a storm of protest in October when it broadcast a rather tasteless number titled The Eulogy Song with the chorus “Even wankers turn into top blokes after death”.
But the martyrdom of former Pakistani prime minister Benazir Bhutto in the wake of her assassination last week suggests songwriter Chris Taylor may have been acutely prescient as well as stupidly offensive when he penned the tune.
Events unfolding in Pakistan indicate Bhutto’s party will certainly have a greater profile and effect on the promised elections, should they proceed this month, than it would have had if she were alive and campaigning - the reality is that she was not as popular in life as she has become in death.
She and her family have long attracted the ire of many Pakistanis for varying reasons, not the least that she was regarded by many as a lightweight dilettante when in office, proving yet again that being photogenic is not necessarily linked to political achievement.
Under her government, the state education system, limited as it was, eroded further and left gaping holes for the fundamentalist Islamists to exploit.
Her husband Asif Al Zardari fled the country pursued by corruption allegations which stretched from Islamabad to Switzerland and veteran correspondents in Pakistan say the bitter joke is that, while Bhutto is now being held up as a martyr to democracy, she never fought seriously for human rights, for women’s rights or featured as an anti-corruption campaigner.
Terrorists took her at her word, not heeding her inaction and she was killed for her rhetoric, not her record.
The developing crisis in Pakistan, however, does highlight the nature of international terrorism and its ability to destabilise populations well beyond the assassin’s bullet or bomb.
Pakistan is certainly no model of democracy but General Pervez Musharraf’s military dictatorship was a major bulwark - leaky and corrupt as it may have been - against Taliban and al-Qaeda forces.
As the only Islamic nuclear power, Pakistan - of all the “stans” - is most dangerous.
Musharraf may well believe he is the only person capable of maintaining the fraught balance between the fundamentalists, the military and the increasingly agitated educated minority seeking a full restoration of the power of the courts but the Western powers - the US in particular - has been urging him to do more and say less about the elements of al-Qaeda which have made their home in the tribal western frontier country.
There are signs that some in the military may be prepared to accept civilian rule, and they should be encouraged, but there are also factions within the army and the intelligence units which have long supported fundamentalism and used it as a source of power.
The very debate about the manner in which Bhutto was assassinated shows how deeply divided the military is.
While officially claiming she died as the result of striking her head on the sunroof of her limousine while reacting to the sound of an explosion, the footage released at the weekend clearly shows a man with a pistol shooting at her.
The conspiracists have plenty of material to work with, given the refusal of her family to permit a post-mortem examination before her burial in the family plot, near her executed father and murdered brother.
The military cannot be asked to step aside entirely, they have to maintain order, but they should understand that there is a need for civil not military government if Pakistan is to achieve a degree of stability.
Bhutto’s more sycophantic Western supporters may regret they did not press her to deliver on her promises of good governance when she had the opportunity but they could now make a contribution by demanding that her successors in the Bhutto-dominated Pakistan Peoples Party pay more than lip service to the niceties of transparency and the law.
In a message from Islamabad, a friend who is a veteran observer of world affairs said he had never experienced such an unutterably depressing and pessimistic mood since Bhutto’s father Zulfikar Ali Bhutto was hanged by the military in 1979.
“The strange thing is that she was almost certainly not going to do that well in the election; but her killing - and the pervading belief that the authorities were part of the conspiracy - has elevated her to the status of a national martyr. And there’s a mood of total hopelessness about the place,” he said.
“Which wouldn’t matter much - except that Pakistan has the bomb and is the linchpin in the war against al-Qaeda.
“It’s a very alarming situation. Could fall like ripe fruit into the hands of the bad guys.”
Indeed. The worrying thing is that Australia is currently being run by a P-plate Government with a Defence Minister in Joel Fitzgibbon who has shown he is yet to understand that responsibility is about more than amiability and a Foreign Affairs Minister in Stephen Smith who thought until last month that he was in line for the education portfolio.
In a word, Australia is, at this time of international crisis, completely rudderless.
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