Benazir Bhutto 1953-2007

It is extraordinary how frequently major events occur during the Christmas period. In 1989, Romanian President Nikolai Chauchesku was overthrown - beginning the collapse of Communist Eastern Europe. Three years ago large tracts of South Asia were devastated by the Tsunami - and still haven't recovered.

Today the shocking news is that Benazir Bhutto, the Leader of the main opposition party in Pakistan has been murdered in a bomb attack.

The consequences of this terrorism should not be understated: the future of Pakistan as a democracy and of President Musharaf is now seriously in question. But today is a time to reflect on the contribution - and sacrifice - of Benazir Bhutto and her family (her father Ali was a previous Prime Minister and President of the country, overthrown and executed by the military in a coup in 1979).

What is clear is that Benazir Butto represented the single most significant opportunity Pakistan had for entrenching democratic values in the country. Pakistan is poised at a crossroads defined by two of its neighbours. It can either follow the path towards growing economic prosperity and democratic security that India is pursuing, or the far more troubled - and troubling - road that Afghanistan has suffered.

Benazir personified everything Afghanistan's former al Qaida-backed, Islamist-terrorist Taliban regime despised - elements of which are surely behind this bomb attack: a confident, imposing, articulate woman leader, a democrat, the separation of religion and government, optimism, economic growth, and unflinching, active opposition to terrorism.

Some are now calling for the Pakistan elections, scheduled for the New Year, to be called off as a mark of respect. While her party - the Pakistan People's Party - clearly needs space to regroup, it seems to me that the greatest mark of respect that could be paid to everything Mrs Bhutto stood for is for democratic, free and fair elections to go ahead.