posted on Dec, 26 2003 @ 07:27 AM
If Musharref is assassinated, the West will have major problems.
Musharref has tried to stem Islamic fundamentalism but all signs actually point to there being a major rise of religious extremism in Pakistan and not
a decline.
Extreme religious groups have recently made inroads into Pakistan politics, culminating recently in one party taking power in the North and reimposing
Sharia in the area.
Musharref's death would leave a power vacuum. Everyone would be fighting to replace him and the religious extremists already have a very good base
from which to approach power.
Musharref might be viewed as an unsavoury character, but at present he is one of the only figures fighting an ever rising tide of fundamentalism in a
country that seems to be heading down the road to being run by religion. And as has already been proven elsewhere - religion cannot run a country and
sit comfortably with it's neighbours or the rest of the world.