Upheaval in Pakistan

A grim sense of deja vu surrounds the sudden ouster of Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto of Pakistan. With Bhutto under house arrest and the capital of Islamabad ringed with army troops, democracy and democratic institutions are clearly once again in peril. To prevent the country's latest political crisis from leading to greater turmoil, the new caretaker government installed by Pakistan's president must fulfill the promise to call new elections, with Bhutto and her political organization allowed to participate. Any charges of corruption against her or her entourage must be made -- and proven -- in court.

There has long been a cyclical quality to the troubles besetting Pakistan and Bhutto. The country has lurched through a series of elections and dictatorships since independence, and partition with India in 1947. As the daughter of prime minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, who was deposed and hanged by the army in the 1970s, she has for years been the one truly popular leader of the country.

Bhutto studied politics at Harvard and Oxford and preached consensus and democracy. Yet she has often ruled autocratically and been indifferent to a widespread perception that many of her closest associates are corrupt, including her husband. She was first elected prime minister in 1988 and ousted a year and a half later, only to be returned to power in the elections of 1993.

Though she pledged to learn from past mistakes, Bhutto has not inspired much confidence in recent years. Her administration was tainted by corruption charges, especially after she reneged on an earlier promise not to involve her husband in government. Instead, she installed him earlier this year as investment minister, with additional responsibility for intelligence and the police. Dark conspiracy theories then rose up around the shooting of Bhutto's brother, Mir Murtaza, in a Karachi gun battle this fall. Bhutto has hinted that her enemies carried out the killing, while others charge that she and her husband were themselves behind it.

Bhutto's troubles mounted in recent weeks, as critics complained that she was trying to install loyalist hacks as judges and running up huge budget deficits. President Farooq Leghari, a onetime Bhutto ally, came under mounting pressure to remove her and call for new elections, just as one of his predecessors did in 1990. Bhutto dismissed talk of her being ousted, saying everyone knew she would simply turn around, run for election and win.

The new caretaker government consists largely of bureaucrats and some former ministers of past military and civilian regimes. Lurking in the background, however, is the army, which has ruled Pakistan for much of its history and is known to have become impatient with Bhutto. The new government must demonstrate that the army does not have commanding influence. There is already talk that elections, which the constitution requires within 90 days, might be postponed.

A stable Pakistan is important to the United States and countries in the region. With civil war continuing in Afghanistan and an uneasy truce between Pakistan and India, the new leaders in Islamabad need to assure the world that they can handle their country's troubles peacefully. Bhutto's government may have been marked by excesses, but it would be disastrous to Pakistan if she did not receive her day in court and at the polling places. The best way to resolve Pakistan's problems is through civilian institutions and the ballot box.

-- The New York Times