The world should have guessed it! But no one had a clue of what Musharraf was upto, or rather what he had up his sleeve.Today Benazir Bhutto the world’s youngest ever Prime Minister was assassinated earlier today in Rawalpindi, Pakistan. This I believe is the fruit of the seeds of Musharraf sowed when he imposed emergency in Pakistan in November’07.

Indira Gandhi’s imposition of Emergency in India, lasted over a year, this in the face of strong opposition from leaders of the stature of Atal Bihari Vajpayee, George Fernandez, Chandrashekhar etc. Then how does one explain the short-lived Emergency in Pakistan where opposition to General Musharraf is few and far between? Not to mention the presence of Islamic terrorists who have the General on top of their hit-list. Musharraf revoked t Emergency on December 16^th signaling the restoration of democracy in Pakistan.

Isn’t this a bit hard to swallow? Of course it is. Musharraf could have been successful in executing Benazir while there were restrictions on the free movement of all, and the army roamed the streets. Assassinating Benazir then would have made Musharraf the only suspect. Now when normalcy has been restored, the needle of suspicion can fall on other elements as well.

Musharraf would have liked to continue the Emergency, but US pressure forced him to act otherwise. Not only does the Bhutto assassination justify last month’s Emergency, but also gives Musharraf enough reason to post-pone the upcoming elections in Pakistan.