Musharraf Bhutto

Pakistan's transition for democracy may be marred by the lack of a transnational leadership that can hold together the forces that threaten the unity of the federation.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid on Thursday urged President George W. Bush to consider cutting aid to Pakistan unless it restores full civil rights ...

Musharraf has often spoken about restoring democracy to Pakistan. But as Bhutto texted me about one of his statements before her return to Pakistan: "What people say and what happens r two diff things."

History indicates that Pakistan's governments have evaded or mishandled the search for truth in all major terrorist attacks and subsequent deaths, including those of heads of government and state and the Pakistan army.

The blood of a martyr is the best solution for the stains of corruption and misgoverning in the part of the world where I come from. Bhutto is assured a greater greatness in death.

Bhutto's stand against the religious extremists made her the only hope for more than one third of the electorate who strongly opposes Musharraf's policies, army rule and religious extremism.

When I first knew Benazir Bhutto, it was not as the larger than life 'Antigone' tragic figure she became but rather as a fellow undergraduate at Harvard College.

Pakistan's internal instability is not only unfavorable to the country, but also critical to the neighboring country Afghanistan. One of the direct effects of Pakistan's internal instability will be sensed in Afghanistan.

Bhutto's death has aggravated the spreading extremism across Pakistan and will destabilize the region, affecting Afghanistan, Iran and India. Any insurgency in the region will reverse all that has been done in Afghanistan.

Watching the pundits talk and the candidates spin, makes me realize that Pakistan is like the movie business: a real pro admits nobody knows anything.

Assassinations, beheadings and torture are once again familiar rituals and routinely used terms in our modern, evolved, supposedly enlightened culture.

With her murder Musharraf has had his chief rival removed and he can resume his authoritarian rule with the Americans off his back. Musharraf has played America brilliantly.

The day after 9/11, Bhutto told me already then she had received intelligence that she was the "next target" of Al Qaeda after they had assassinated the Afghan resistance leader of the Northern Alliance.

As her father's daughter, Bhutto couldn't obey the ineluctable logic of the new Pakistan: wouldn't stay inside, wouldn't shun the people, wouldn't go back into exile after the first attack.

We don't want to hear a word from the Clinton camp about her alleged experience of which she has very little, or from Obama about fresh ideas until he has some.

Bhutto's horrible demise sets up an audition of sorts for commander in chief as contenders compete for the most presidential on-camera reaction.

Bhutto's assassination ought to be a call to consider a leader who has clear view of the world and its unpredictability.

The assassination of Benazir Bhutto ought to be the death knell for the Bush-Cheney policy of smothering the military regime in Pakistan with rewards in the hope that they will do something nice.

It's almost always painfully true that far too many government higher-ups will go to any lengths to discredit their political opponents or the radical critics of their policies when they are seen to pose a direct threat.

There is no shortage of analysis about the national security implications of Bhutto's death, but I want to write about the young woman I met in England before she became a player on the world stage.

Musharraf and the other generals will tell Washington that there are two options: military rule or Islamic fundamentalists taking hold of the Pakistani nuclear arsenal.

The first serious American politician to propose a radical realignment of U.S. policy toward Pakistan was Obama. He was pounced on by the punditry, his statements taken as further evidence he is a foreign policy lightweight.