The Q League has attempted to regain ground through subsequently published newspaper advertisements that blatantly attempt to use the post-assassination riots and destruction to foment ethnic strife. The undoubtedly tragic loss of lives and property during the post-assassination chaos has also provided the administration an excuse to target the PPP by registering thousands of cases against their workers and electoral candidates (500,000, according to some newspaper reports) in Sindh.

Meanwhile, there is great public indignation at how the government dealt with the assassination — quickly hosing down the scene of the crime, just as it had done after the October 18 attack on Bhutto’s welcome procession, then claiming that “Al-Qaeda” carried out the attack, followed by the ridiculous “sun-roof” theory that the caretaker prime minister had to subsequently apologise for.

The attempt to pin the blame on Al-Qaeda omits the historic and widely known linkage between these “agencies” and the “Taliban” or Al-Qaeda that Benazir herself believed was still alive, a sort of “state within a state”. This linkage has caused great damage not only to the world but also to us here in Pakistan. Following the first attempt on her life the day she returned to Pakistan after almost nine years of self-exile on October 18, Benazir herself accused that these “remnants of Zia”, as she put it, attempted to kill her. In an email made public since her death, she named three people from among these remnants as being behind this attempt: an intelligence chief and two political leaders from the “king’s party”.

... contd.