Bhutto's Ultimatum
I read a couple days ago, (I've forgotten where exactly), that only the military has the power to remove Musharraf. Unlikely given that he's the head of said military, and has had the foresight to install loyalists in most top positions, but possible if he becomes too much of a liability.
The lawyers alone don't make Musharraf a liability, but if Bhutto can put great masses of Pakistani people onto the streets as she appears to be planning, and the other major opposition groups join them, as some appear to be planning, then the calculation changes.
Reading the Pakistani authorities reaction to the planned protest,
He told the Associated Press there was a "strong threat" of another suicide bomb attack against Ms Bhutto, who survived an assassination attempt in Karachi on 18 October that killed more than 140 people.
almost makes you wonder where the threat is coming from.
It also got me thinking. The situation in Pakistan is clearly tense, passions are on the rise, and a quite popular figure is about to take to the streets with, if the crowds greeting her return are any indication, possibly hundreds of thousands of supporters. Any crackdown is likely to be quite nasty and bloody.
Musharraf is desperate, and its very hard to predict what a desperate man will do. But as ugly as a heavy-handed crackdown would be, what if the "strong threat" is real? And what if it succeeds?
With all the pent-up rage and frustration there right now, what happens if Bhutto becomes a martyr?
