In 1986, just before Benazir Bhutto returned to Pakistan from exile for the first time, Pakistan’s military dictator General Zia-ul-Haq told one of her American friends, ‘‘My greatest mistake was to let her live.’’ When the friend narrated this episode to her, Ms Bhutto said realistically, ‘‘He is right.’’ Beginning with Zia-ul-Haq’s decision to execute Pakistan first popularly elected leader, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, Pakistan has witnessed a fundamental struggle between the country’s military-led establishment and populist forces led by the Bhutto family. Benazir Bhutto’s assassination is the latest twist in that conflict.

Like all great people, and political dynasties, the Bhuttos generate a lot of passion—both for and against. In the days to come we will read and hear many facts, factoids and falsehoods about the strengths, weaknesses and paradoxes of Benazir Bhutto. To me these are merely the subtext. The headline is that the Pakistani establishment’s nemesis has been removed from the scene, ostensibly by terrorists who have flourished in establishment-dominated Pakistan.

Bhutto was demonised by the civil-military oligarchy that has virtually run Pakistan since 1958, the year of Pakistan’s first military coup. But she retained a hard core of popular support, and her social-democratic Pakistan People’s Party is widely regarded as Pakistan’s largest political party.

Pakistan’s civilian leaders of recent years (including Benazir Bhutto) get blamed for many things that are essentially the result of the establishment’s obsessions—with India, about Afghanistan and relations with the United States.

Benazir Bhutto had the combination of political brilliance, charisma, popular support and international recognition that made her a credible democratic alternative to Musharraf and acceptable to the international community. Her elimination from the scene is not only a personal loss to millions of Pakistanis who loved and admired her; it exposes Pakistan’s vulnerability and the urgent need to deal with it.

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