In fact, the only way Musharraf can show his sincerity and even get himself, the army and perhaps his political allies absolved of the accusations that will now fly thick and fast, such being the nature of Byzantine politics, is to go ahead with the elections.

The talk about imposing another emergency will be akin to playing with fire. Investigations into this tragedy need sincerity, not a blanket imposition of drastic measures curtailing basic rights, not least because emergency in and of itself can have no impact on the efficacy of investigations intended to unearth the culprits who did this. Indeed, imposition of emergency and postponement of elections will serve to do just the opposite: convince the PPP cadres as also the majority of Pakistanis that Bhutto was targeted only so the ancien regime could carry on merrily.

This is a death whose shadow will linger over Pakistani politics for many years to come. There’s also a lesson here for those who have ruled Pakistan for so long and defied the logic of establishing a succession principle. If Pakistan were a stable state, this death would still be mourned but no one would consider even a tragedy as big as this to be the undoing of the state itself.

Bhutto was fighting for just such stability; the only way to honour her and her sacrifice is for the country to return to democracy and to the creation of a legal-normative framework. And the first step to that is free and fair elections.

... contd.