Developments in Pakistan since the assassination of Benazir Bhutto have been most extensively reported in the Urdu press. Delhi-based Hindustan Express on December 31 writes in an editorial, “Bibi zinda hain (Bibi is alive)... The remaining Bhuttos and her political heirs have once again given proof of their wisdom which was demonstrated by Benazir after the hanging of her father, Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto... it is easy to take revenge by ‘blood for blood’, but it is very difficult to defeat the enemy by following a path of peace and non-violence.”

Rashtriya Sahara (December 30) has been inspired to use a couplet as the headline on a page 1 signed editorial (by Aziz Burney) “Yeh baazi khoon ki baazi hai, yeh baazi tum hi haaroge, har ghar se Bhutto niklega, tum kitne Bhutto maaroge. This has blood at stake, and you will be the loser. Each home will produce a Bhutto, how many will you kill?” Obliquely holding Musharraf and the US responsible for the assassination, the editorial (Bush aur Mush ki Jodi — the Bush and Musharraf twosome) mockingly asks that “if Al Qaeda were to pick one Pakistani to kill if it is angry with the US and Mr Bush, is it difficult to understand who that would be?”

Jamaat-e-Islami’s bi-weekly Daawat on January 1 has taken a different line. “Pro-US elements are hiding behind the name of jihadi groups and indulging in the character assassination of Islam.” Interestingly, it has approvingly quoted the Pakistani journalist Aroosa Alam (in the news in India for different reasons) to the effect that the persons named by Benazir after the attack on her in Karachi included Pakistan’s IB chief, the CMs of Punjab and Sind and five other important persons.

... contd.