Assassination Raises Fears of Renewed Turmoil in Pakistan

JUDY WOODRUFF:

Finally tonight, the reverberations from the Bhutto assassination in Pakistan and beyond. We get three views.

Shahid Husain was special assistant for economic affairs to Benazir Bhutto's father, Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, during the mid-1970s. And he had a 33-year career at the World Bank and is now a consultant.

Shuja Nawaz is a former Pakistani journalist and official at the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund. He's the author of a forthcoming book about the Pakistani military.

Stephen Cohen served in the State Department's policy planning staff in the 1980s. He's written extensively on Pakistan and is now a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution.

Gentlemen, thank you, all three, for being here.

Stephen Cohen, this has been all over the news today, as far as I can see. We are devoting an entire hour to this. Does — is the death of Benazir Bhutto, does it merit that much attention in this country and elsewhere?

STEPHEN COHEN, Senior Fellow in Foreign Policy Studies, Brookings Institution: I think it does because she was in a sense the best hope for a moderate, reasonably secular Pakistan, in tune with the rest of the world and Islam that Pakistan had produced in a long time. She had many failings, but I think, on balance, she was going to be — she would have been a better leader her third term, had she won or had she had that opportunity.

And I think her death, but this way, is really strengthening the forces of darkness in Pakistan, and they're going to see this as a great victory. And the ineptness of the government in protecting her or coming up with any reasonable solutions I think is going to come back to haunt them.

I think there will be more changes in Pakistan, more dramatic changes in Pakistan. And I don't expect the present setup to remain as it is now.

JUDY WOODRUFF:

Mr. Nawaz, as a native of Pakistan, what did she mean for your country? And how does that change with her death?

SHUJA NAWAZ, Author/Journalist:

I think she felt that she had a mission that she needed to fulfill. These are all the ideas that she thought that she should have implemented in her first two terms, because, when I spoke with her before she left for Pakistan last fall, this is what was guiding her, that she was unafraid of the risks, which she was also quite cognizant of. But she was ready to go in and to battle for what she thought was an opportunity to change the way Pakistan is operated and run.

Mr. Husain, also a native of Pakistan, you worked for Benazir Bhutto's father. What did she mean for your country?

SHAHID HUSAIN, Former Pakistani Official:

Well, she was young. She was a woman. She was educated. She was very controversial also, which means that today is probably not the day and not the time to look at her flaws and — but she represented the contradictions of Pakistan's history.

JUDY WOODRUFF:

In what way?

SHAHID HUSAIN:

If you look at Pakistan's history of the last 60 years, it has been ruled by a small elite, an elite consisting of the feudals, the military, and municipal servants.

Largely, they have disenfranchised the people of Pakistan. And it has been a very narrow elite which has ruled Pakistan, which has neglected human development, which has neglected education. After 60 years of independence, 50 percent of Pakistani adults are illiterate.

JUDY WOODRUFF:

Fifty percent?

SHAHID HUSAIN:

Fifty percent. Pakistan rates among the last seven in the index of human development of the UNDP.

And Benazir Bhutto, Musharraf, and the entire leadership is responsible for it, because of the neglect of the people of Pakistan and the lack of linkage between the establishment and the masses in general.