Musharraf is a liability to Pakistan

The political turmoil in Pakistan shows no sign of ending any time soon, a week after the assassination of former prime minister Benazir Bhutto. The killing also exposed the weakness of President Pervez Musharraf's beleaguered regime.

In the latest defence of the government in his first news conference since Bhutto's assassination on Thursday, Musharraf at least partly blamed Bhutto for emerging from the sunroof of her vehicle and taking a risk by exposing herself to a large crowd.

Musharraf has a penchant for putting on a brave face in the worst of times. However, this time, Pakistan's ruler may have been left with a fast-shrinking set of choices, as he sees his country descend deeper into political turmoil.

The widespread violence in the wake of Bhutto's death may have abated for now. But the disturbances have reminded many Pakistanis of some of the country's worst periods of turmoil.

The late Bhutto will be remembered not just as a towering political figure in the country's history, after her late father Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, but also as a champion of democracy, a determined and courageous leader, who spent most of her 30-year career in politics fighting one battle after another.

For its part, Musharraf's regime has followed the assassination with one faux pas after another. Placing the responsibility for her death on Bhutto (for exposing herself to a crowd) and the official claim that she, in fact, banged her head against the lever of the sunroof which caused her death, say much about the government's inability to deal with the fallout from this crisis.

Confident

Pakistan's emerging outlook is another powerful reminder about the extent to which the country's best interests have been damaged under Musharraf's eight- year rule.

That the Pakistani president now appears confident about his ability to take his country through this challenging era says much about his failure to grasp the gravity of the crisis.

Indeed, since he has become a significant liability to the future of Pakistan, it is now time for Musharraf to step down and give way to a more credible democratic order.

The setbacks to Pakistan's future under Musharraf's watch have come not only after Bhutto's killing but in fact go back to events since March last year, when Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry, the former chief justice of Pakistan's supreme court, was suspended on vague charges of misconduct.

In July, Chaudhry returned after a landmark judgement by the supreme court. This was probably the time when Musharraf should have stepped down, as his moral authority had been decimated. He, however, chose to say on in power, seeking to keep control over Pakistan for at least another five years.

Musharraf went on to not only get himself re-elected as president (while continuing to hold his military position as chief of the army staff) but he also imposed a nationwide state of emergency which preceded Chaudhry's replacement by a new chief justice.

If indeed a civilian leader, such as the late Bhutto, would have gone through the controversies of the past year, it is more than likely that the military-led establishment, which remains the main arbiter in Pakistan, would have moved to sack such a government. For now, Musharraf may live with the knowledge of having his fingers squarely on all the levers of power. But as Pakistan goes through a continuing political slide, Musharraf's ability to tackle the country's multiple challenges will indeed be further tested.

His continuing desire to dominate Pakistan without taking account of the growing opposition to his rule is bound to backfire into another round of political controversy, which will eventually become unsustainable.

Benazir's death has turned her into another martyr of the Bhutto family. History will judge her not so much by some of the controversies surrounding her rule but indeed her eventual death in the cause of bringing democracy back to Pakistan.

Meanwhile, Musharraf's legacy will be holding charge of Pakistan in the face of widening conflict and political disorder, as the South Asian country remains as far as ever from its right to finally return to full democratic status.

Farhan Bokhari is a Pakistan-based commentator who writes on political and economic matters.