by WAJAHAT ALI 

An assassin's bullets and suicide bomb have ended the life of Pakistan's former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto. Tragically, she followed in the footsteps of her father, Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto, Pakistan's Prime Minister (1973–1977), who was brutally hanged by political rival and subsequent military dictator General Zia al Haq nearly thirty years ago. The legacy of this family elucidates the political instability and schizophrenic personality of modern-day Pakistan: a complex, volatile and multifaceted nation whose diverse features have increasingly and frequently become accentuated by violence.

Bhutto and nearly 20 civilian supporters were killed while stumping for the upcoming January Pakistan parliamentary elections in the army stronghold of Rawalpindi. As of Friday morning, Bhutto's death catalyzed widespread riots, vandalism, and civilian unrest directly resulting in 15 reported deaths. President Musharraf, who recently lifted November's State of Emergency that temporarily suspended the Constitution and implemented a "mini Martial law," officially declared 3 days of "mourning" and vowed to continue his resolve against extremists and terrorists.

Meanwhile, Nawaz Sharif, the once exiled former Prime Minister of Pakistan and potential rival to Musharraf, promised, "We will avenge [Bhutto's] death," and has boycotted the upcoming elections. World leaders and dignitaries, specifically Republican and Democratic Presidential candidates, quickly issued press releases and television interviews admonishing the assassination, pledging their vow to root out "Islamic terrorism", and supporting Musharraf and Pakistan's "move towards democracy." (Presidential candidate Huckabee had to be reminded, embarrassingly, that Pakistan was no longer under martial law — an auspicious sign of our future leaders' knowledge and understanding of foreign policy and world affairs.)

"Rage Boy"

The vast majority of Pakistani citizens, according to my friends and family who live there, lament the tragic actions of an extremist minority that continues to pollute and threaten the spirit, character, and personal safety of the nation. To the ears of "Westerners," whose only exposure to Pakistan by the US media has been a simplistic, cartoon-like depiction of angry extremism ("Rage Boy") and enlightened "moderation" of a military dictatorship [Musharaff], this sentiment rings false and hollow. Indeed, "Rage Boy" has become the ubiquitous image of not only Pakistani politics, but also 160 million Pakistani citizens; "Rage Boy" is a bearded, irrationally angry, frothing, anti-American extremist whose occupation consists of three full time jobs: burning American flags, studying at an Islamic fundamentalist madrassas, and engaging in anti-American terrorist activities. Any proper student of history or anthropology with even a modicum of knowledge regarding Pakistan's diverse socio-cultural identity would scoff at that simplistic depiction. Sadly, nuances and complexity are not afforded media air-time amidst Pakistan's continuing and repeated, albeit isolated, acts of sensationalistic violence.

This dualistic and Manichean representation of Pakistan manifests itself with the description of the personality at the center of this recent, contagious conflagration: Bhutto. Mere hours after her assassination, Bhutto was both praised as a "shaheed" [a martyr], "a beacon for democracy," "a model of progress," "a loyal friend to democracy," and condemned as "a traitor," "a US puppet," and everything in between. When extremism, political fervor, and selfish interests marry, the resulting progeny is usually instability, uncertainty and violence; common sense, rationality, and moderation are generally aborted.

Prime Minister Bhutto

Before outlining the possible motives and culprits of this dreadful assassination, a cursory look at Bhutto and her political career is needed. Following in the dynastic footsteps of her father, the Harvard and Oxford educated Bhutto became the head of the PPP [Pakistan's People Party] and was elected as the country's first female Prime Minister in 1988. In a stunning twist of fate, irony, or cunning (depending on whom you ask), she succeeded the assassinated General Zia al Haq, the same man responsible for hanging her father in 1977. Although plaudits and adulations have been heaped on the recently deceased Bhutto, her political tenure in Pakistan was marred by ineffectuality and widespread charges of corruption, which effectively ended both of her terms as Prime Minister. (It should be noted that Nawaz Sharif's first term was dismissed for corruption charges as well.)

Specifically, Bhutto was accused of stealing more than $1 billion from Pakistan's treasury, and Switzlerand convicted Bhutto of laundering nearly $11 million. Furthermore, Bhutto's husband, Asif Zardari, is affectionately known in Pakistan as "Mr. Ten Percent," an honorable title he earnestly earned for receiving a "10%" commission from all government contracts.

Also, it is worth noting that Bhutto, who in the past few hours has been hailed as "Pakistan's last hope for democracy and reform," financially and militarily supported and strengthened Afghanistan's repressive, extremist and misogynist Taliban government that came to power in 1996. The Taliban's disastrous and archaic human rights policy, hardly democratic or progressive, was conveniently swept under the rug in lieu of pacifying the Afghan region to ensure beneficial and lucrative trade routes to Central Asia. Like a scene from King Lear or Godfather 2 — if Bhutto's own niece and political critics are to be believed - Bhutto engineered the still unsolved assassination of her estranged brother, Murtaza, in 1996 to consolidate political leadership of the PPP. Bhutto's political history, thus, is marred by several questionable controversies, rank corruption and abuse. Why, then, was she promoted by the United States as a harbinger of peace and democracy?

The fateful triangle

Reports indicate that the United States, Musharraf and Bhutto recently agreed to a brokered power sharing deal, whereby Musharraf would retain his Presidency, Bhutto would be named Prime Minster and her numerous corruption charges would bypass the courts and be "dropped" due to the creation of a "National Reconciliation Ordinance." The deal was suspect from the beginning and only further deteriorated with Bhutto's return from exile to Pakistan in October, when a devastating assassination attempt on her life, still unsolved, left nearly 140 people dead.