The Year 2007 ends on a relatively positive note for Nepal as, in its closing days, the seven-party alliance clinched a 23-point agreement to unlock four months of political stalemate and the interim parliament passed the third amendment to the Interim Constitution declaring the new Federal Republic of Nepal. This has raised the hope of a successful political transition here despite an atmosphere of uncertainty and insecurity that reigns across the country. But, for Pakistan, a SAARC member, December has been the cruellest and the bloodiest month — in the assassination of its former elected prime minister Benazir Bhutto, who had returned home two months ago after years of exile to re-launch herself in national politics. Her gory end has made the future direction of Pakistani politics uncertain and fraught. Nepal and Pakistan are both waiting for the elections — the former, the election to the Constituent Assembly that will give the country an entirely new constitution; the latter, the polls that will form a new parliament and elect a new prime minister within the existing system and power structure, including cohabitation with president Pervez Musharraf.

During the past decade, in both countries, unelected persons usurped power, throwing out the democratically elected heads of government, imposing their illegitimate regimes. In Nepal, the dictatorial regime lasted shorter; it went out about two years ago under the tremendous weight of Jana Andolan II. In Pakistan, to partake of some sort of power-sharing arrangement with the military brokered by the United States, Benazir had come two months ago to fight the elections at the head of the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP), a major party that commands considerable support in that country. However, it is difficult to say whether Bhutto, even if alive and in power, would be significantly better at bringing relative calm and stability to Pakistan.

But that should provide no excuse for postponing the election for too long again. After all, democracy is better than no democracy even in the chaotic state Pakistan is in today. Various people have variously raised their fingers of suspicion or blamed others outright for the Bhutto murder. But, on a sober reflection, the tragic and catastrophic death calls for a

full, impartial and credible inquiry into the assassination. Benazir was not the first political leader killed, even in recent times, but, sadly, she is unlikely to be the last, given the reign of terror and lawlessness that rules in Pakistan. Even her political rival Nawaz Sharif could just have met a similar fate last week. The question is not only one of restoring democracy, but also of saving Pakistan, as some are rightly saying. The sudden departure of Bhutto must have confused Washington, which had carefully crafted her return to Pakistan — and her full support for the US ‘war on terror’, according to many, was a possible cause of her killing. The presence, absence or partial existence of democracy in Pakistan has, sadly, also had a lot to do with foreign strategic interests. Nepali political leaders should learn certain lessons from Pakistan and get wiser in time.