Sharif does not have the answers for Pakistan

Muhammad Nawaz Sharif:

There is no law and certainly no order in my country. What happened this past week has shaken every Pakistani. Benazir Bhutto was no ordinary person. She served as prime minister twice and had returned to Pakistan in an effort to restore our country to the path of democracy. With her assassination I have lost a friend and a partner in democracy.

It is too early to blame anybody for her death. One thing, however, is beyond any doubt: The country is paying a very heavy price for the many unpardonable actions of one man -- Pervez Musharraf.

Musharraf alone is responsible for the chaos in Pakistan. Over the past eight years he has assiduously worked at demolishing institutions, subverting the constitution, dismantling the judiciary and gagging the media. Pakistan today is a military state in which a former prime minister can be gunned down in broad daylight. One of my own political rallies was fired upon the day Benazir Bhutto was killed.

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So the Taliban and al Qaeda bear no responsibility for chaos on Pakistan? Anyone ignorant enough to make that statement is not smart enough to lead Pakistan. Musharraf has made his share of mistakes, but the biggest have been in not aggressively defeating the Islamist religious bigots who are responsible for most of the disorder. Instead he ahs focused on the lawyers and the courts, who for all their faults are not exploding in an effort to commit mass murder. I don't trust Sharif and this essay makes me trust him less. He is too close to the people who are the real threat to Pakistan, the religious bigots. Historically he has been as corrupt as Bhutto's husband. He is not the answer to Pakistan's problems.