Monday, December 31, 2007

BENAZIR BHUTTO

The assassination of the former Primer Minister of Pakistan, Benazir Bhutto, has been met with violent reaction by some of her supporters in Pakistan and words of condolence by political leaders around the world. As grief quickly turned into anger some of Bhutto's supporters in several cities across Pakistan reacted by setting fire to vehicles and on Sat 29 Dec there were reports from the BBC of at least 38 people being killed in riots. However, this is unlikely to continue and stability should return to the main cities. At the same time world leaders, including George Bush and Gordon Brown, publicly expressed their sorrow for the death of Bhutto and called for democratic elections in Pakistan and a continued fight against international terrorism.Although there has been concern that Bhutto's death could bring political instability to Pakistan this isn't the most likely outcome. It is more probable that the forthcoming elections will pose an uncertain and possibly problemtaic political future for Pakistan. National and provincial elections are expected to be held on 08 Jan 2008. In previous local elections there has been violence and killings. The Barnabus Fund have reported that two Christian candidates are running for the reserved minority seats for Christians in the upcoming elections. If elected, they are hoping to help end the controversial “blasphemy laws” under which there is a death sentence. Christians and other non-Muslims are particularly vulnerable to false accusations under this law.

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