Benazir Bhutto, 54, educated at Harvard and Oxford universities, served twice as Pakistan's prime minister between 1988 and 1996. Her assassination left a huge political vacuum in the only Moslem nuclear-armed state, which appears to be facing violence and Islamic extremism. She seemed to be the only answer to rising extremisms in Pakistan that is also feeding into Afghanistan.
The political earthquake caused by her assassination will yield considerable outcomes in the region. She was the only hope for democracy, and the US and UK believed they could exert pressure on Musharraf thorough her. The Bush administration hoped that Bhutto would be elected prime minister and in collaboration with Musharraf accelerate the democratic reforms and take control of the hazardous tribal belt bordering Afghanistan. She accused Musharraf of not tackling the extremism seriously. Islamic militants linked to al Qaida and the Taliban hated Bhutto for her close ties to the Americans and support for the war on terrorism. She was known as a pro-western secular leader, so she was repeatedly threatened to death by the extremists upon her return to Pakistan in October.
Though she was against extremism and had publicly taken on the Taliban extremists, it was during her ruling that the Inter-Services Intelligence agency (ISI) helped the Taliban to take control of Afghanistan. Nasrolah Babor, the Interior Minister at the time she was Prime Minister, designed and helped the Taliban in 1990s.
Her death has aggravated the problem of spreading extremism across the country and will destabilize the region, affecting the neighboring countries of Afghanistan, Iran and India. Meanwhile Musharraf seems unable to control the spread of extremism because the Pakistani high officials do not follow him. Some divisions among high ranking Pakistanis and ISI officers are in favor of fueling insurgency through the Pakistani Taliban and they have close ties with this group since their emergence. The situation is very complicated by now and there are three important issues to be considered: first it is a big blow on the process of democracy in Pakistan. Second the recent events have created a drastic challenge for Pakistan government and this will exacerbate the crisis. And finally, rising extremism in Pakistan is threatening the region. Not focusing on rooting out extremism from the tribal belt of Pakistan is endangering the stability in the region.
It has been quite some time since scholars like Barnett Rubin have cried out that the US should focus the center of its efforts in Pakistan. The root cause of insecurity in Afghanistan and in the region lies in Pakistan and we have witnessed the spread of extremisms from tribal belt in North Pakistan to all parts of the country. The unfortunate news for Afghanistan is that any insurgency in the region will reverse all that has been done in Afghanistan.