BY FIKRET BILA
MILLIYET- A plan which was developed and supported by the US to defeat the Taliban and al-Qaeda in Pakistan and Afghanistan might be scuttled by yesterday's assassination of Benazir Bhutto.
Under the plan, Pervez Musharraf, now no longer head of the military, would have remained Pakistan's president, and based on the outcome of the planned Jan. 8 elections, Nawaz Sharif or Bhutto would have established a government.
The plan's goal was to keep fundamentalists out of power. Although she provided powerful opposition to Musharraf, Bhutto was seen as accepting a formula including Musharraf towards that aim. Bhutto convinced the other opposition parties, including Sharif's, to take part in the upcoming elections.
Bhutto's assassination has thrown this plan into disorder. Signals that Pakistan, already in confusion, is teetering towards deeper chaos were in evidence yesterday. Under such conditions, holding elections anytime soon seems unworkable.
The US' main reason for keeping Mussarraf on top as a civilian, and urging cooperation with a government of either Bhutto or Sharif, was to prevent fundamentalists from coming to power and taking control of the country's nuclear arsenal .
It's difficult to say that the US wasn't responsible for this possibility, which it saw as a great danger. Its onetime `Green Belt Project' to strengthen the Taliban against Russia resulted in an uncontrollable radical power, and this power has become a thorn in the side of the US, both in Pakistan and Afghanistan.
The situation in Pakistan shows us the importance of secularism as a sine qua non for democracies. Of course, it also shows the greatness of Ataturk and how was a huge windfall for Turkey.