Without a doubt, Benizar Bhutto's murder this week was a tragedy. It has done nothing but inject more uncertainty and instability into the Pakistani government situation.
However, of all the news coverage of the past week regarding Bhutto's murder, only one mentioned her prior regime's corruption. For example, consider this webpage on Benizar Bhutto's husband's corruption.
One editorial which I read in the Wall Street Journal claimed that Bhutto 'had never been tried for corruption,' or words to that effect.
Maybe not. I think she'd been deposed and left the country ahead of the authorities on both occasions.
Even at the time of each of her two turns as prime minister, The Economist reported Benizar's husband's shady dealings. Does anybody besides me wonder what the Bhuttos used for money when not in power? How have they been able to live without obvious careers, jobs, or other means of support for so long?
Perhaps Benizar would have won the next election. Perhaps not. If she had, perhaps this time, there'd be no corruption. More than likely, it would have continued.
Maybe the Pakistanis don't care about the corruption. Perhaps, to them, whichever tribe/group is in power will take its share of spoils.
But the pundit who noted Benizar's prior corruption, and its being the cause of her ouster each time, noted that her party has other qualified candidates to run for prime minister.
It's never a good thing to have political issues settled by violence and murder. But in the aftermath of Benizar Bhutto's death, it seems that nearly everyone has been remembering an angelic, perfect female Muslim leader, rather than the real, decidedly mixed blessing Bhutto was for her country and people.
