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Jan. 2nd, 2008 03:57 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sophiaserpentiaIt's worse than you knew in Pakistan. Barnett Rubin writes:
Some are charging now that Benazir Bhutto was scheduled to meet, only a few hours after the moment when she was assassinated, with two US legislators to give them evidence that Musharraf was planning to rig the election.
Of course, now that the cover-up is a fait accompli and evidence has been destroyed or buried, Scotland Yard is sending people to assist in the investigation. When they toss up their hands in frustration and leave with nothing, Musharraf will be able to bolster his plausible deniability by claiming that even independent investigators could find nothing.
I called a friend in Lahore this morning. The obstacles [to holding the election on January 8 as scheduled] are not just that electoral materials (possibly including those prepared for rigging) were destroyed in the rioting. The country's infrastructure is under severe stress. In Lahore there are only 7 hours of electricity a day, and water pressure is also reported to be unreliable (I know those of you in Kabul may not feel their pain). Optic fiber lines were cut in Sindh, blacking out telecommunications for a while. The front page of Dawn online yields the following: There has been massive damage to the country's rail network. Fuel is in short supply, and the shortages are likely to get worse. The stock market and the currency are both crashing. Government ministers are charging "foreign elements" (i.e. India) with organizing the riots, a useful excuse for martial law.
In Pakistan there is a massive outburst of rage against Musharraf and everything associated with his government, including the government's claim that it has evidence that the Pakistani Taliban, led by Baitullah Mahsud, carried out the assassination. I still lean toward the hypothesis that the operation was carried out by organizations connected to al-Qaida. Given the relationship of the Pakistani military to jihadi organizations that by no means absolves the Musharraf regime of responsibility.
Some are charging now that Benazir Bhutto was scheduled to meet, only a few hours after the moment when she was assassinated, with two US legislators to give them evidence that Musharraf was planning to rig the election.
Of course, now that the cover-up is a fait accompli and evidence has been destroyed or buried, Scotland Yard is sending people to assist in the investigation. When they toss up their hands in frustration and leave with nothing, Musharraf will be able to bolster his plausible deniability by claiming that even independent investigators could find nothing.
