Although Bilawal has four years to go before graduating from Oxford University, Pakistan will benefit from young political leadership. Today’s younger generation has been disillusioned by politics. Bilawal can help spark a renewed faith in Pakistani politics in today’s younger generation — just the way Robert F. Kennedy did in the US, or Rahul Gandhi and Jyotiraditya Scindia are doing in India.

Now that the PPP and PML-N have agreed to participate in the polls, parliamentary elections scheduled for January 8 should not be delayed. The plans for poll rigging already in place for the benefit of the King’s Party, PML-Q, should be shelved to ensure that a rigged poll does not become the instigator of a new round of street violence. Musharraf has ruled alone for long enough. He should not put the country’s stability and prosperity in jeopardy by continuing with the political juggling that has kept him strong so far while making Pakistan weak.

There is no way the PPP will now lose the election, given the strong sympathy wave resulting from Mohtarma’s assassination. It led in the opinion polls, followed by Sharif’s PML-N even before the tragic episode. Cooperation between PML-N and the PPP, as well as other opposition parties, offers an opportunity to turn national sorrow into national unity. The establishment could hold on to power by use of force but that would only harm an already brittle nation further.

The writer is director of Boston University’s Center for International Relations haqqani@bu.edu