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As if things couldn't get any worse in a country that has been torn apart by political strife and Taliban extremism in recent months, Pakistan was plunged yesterday into unimaginable chaos, devastating grief and numbing shock after the murder of Benazir Bhutto.

Her death will almost certainly lead to the cancellation of the elections on Jan. 8 and the possible imposition of extraordinary measures by the military - a state of emergency or even martial law.

Moreover, as thousands of people took to the streets of all major cities last night to cry, tear their hair out and demonstrate against the government, President Pervez Musharraf's own political future now seems to be in question.

Ms. Bhutto died just three kilometres from where her father, prime minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, was hanged in 1979, after a military coup. There has been a bitter feud between the military and the Bhutto-led Pakistan Peoples Party ever since and yesterday, party stalwarts accused the military of the latest Bhutto murder - although that is extremely unlikely.

The classic use of a sniper to cut her down, coupled with one or two suicide bombers to create a major distraction, bore all the hallmarks of an al-Qaeda-trained Pakistani suicide squad.

The tragedy of this family - Ms. Bhutto's two brothers also died violently, one poisoned and the other shot - has epitomized Pakistani politics since the country's bloody birth in 1947. Pakistan's first prime minister, Liaquat Ali Khan, also was assassinated during a political rally in Rawalpindi; Ms. Bhutto was shot in the park named for him.

There is now a huge political vacuum at the heart of this nuclear-armed state of 160 million people, which seems to be slipping into an abyss of violence and Islamic extremism. Ms. Bhutto's death leaves vacant the command of the PPP, which has always been led by a Bhutto. Benazir has one sister, Sanam Bhutto, who lives in London and has always avoided politics, and a husband, Asif Ali Zardari, who is politically controversial - and now the sole parent of three teenaged children.

Her death also leaves Pakistan's political system hollow. Twice elected prime minister in the 1990s, twice dismissed on charges of corruption and incompetence by the military, Ms. Bhutto remained a giant of a politician in a land of political pygmies and acolytes of the military.

In recent weeks, she took on the Taliban extremists in a frontal way - something Mr. Musharraf has not dared to do during his eight-year tenure. She demanded an end to interference by the military in the political process but, at the same time, expressed her willingness to work with the army if it supported democracy. She and her party commanded the diehard loyalty of at least a third of the electorate, who were vehemently against army rule and Islamic extremism.

Ms. Bhutto and the PPP were the closest the Islamic Republic of Pakistan has ever gotten to espousing a secular, democratic political culture. In a country where the only recent political advances have been made by the Pakistani Taliban, who have seized large chunks of territory, such a role was immensely brave and necessary.

Her campaigning for the parliamentary elections in 10 days time was drawing large crowds and bitter criticism from her main rivals - politicians standing on behalf of Mr. Musharraf and the military. She had voiced strong fears that the elections would be rigged by the military against her, accusations that seemed wholly justified given the regime's continued clampdown on the judiciary, the news media and the electoral process.

The elections themselves were an outcome of enormous U.S. and British pressure on Mr. Musharraf. Their actions forced the President to allow Ms. Bhutto to return home from exile and take part in the elections. The West would have liked to see Ms. Bhutto elected as prime minister and to see her forge a partnership with Mr. Musharraf to push back the encroaching Pakistani Taliban.

However, Mr. Musharraf had already made it clear that he did not want to work with Ms. Bhutto and favoured the political allies he was already tied to. It is these doubts about Mr. Musharraf's political intentions toward Ms. Bhutto that will be the most damaging for him in the days ahead.

Mr. Musharraf may not survive the fallout of Ms. Bhutto's death simply because his political intentions were not honourable and were unacceptable to an increasing number of Pakistanis.

In the present state of grief and shock, it is unlikely that other opposition leaders will accept Mr. Musharraf's wish to continue in office. If the rioting and political mayhem worsen, if the opposition refuses to co-operate with the President, and if the international community finally begins to distance itself from him, then the army may be forced to tell Mr. Musharraf to call it a day.

However, even Mr. Musharraf's departure would, of itself, resolve little. A slim hope would lie in the possibility that, after his departure, the army, rather than seizing power for itself, would encourage the formation of a national government made up of the leading political figures who, together, could try and beat back the spectre of extremism haunting this benighted land.

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