Rick Barton, a senior adviser at CSIS, was quoted by the Chicago Tribune,"Pakistan, US face the void"

The sudden disappearance of Benazir Bhutto from Pakistan's political scene leaves behind a dangerous period of uncertainty for the country, forcing leaders from Islamabad to Washington into difficult choices about how to protect their interests and keep the nuclear-armed, Islamist-threatened country from descending further into chaos.

As a third day of riots after Bhutto's assassination shut down swaths of the country Saturday, most of the power brokers in Pakistan — from President Pervez Musharraf to the army generals to the demoralized opposition to the Bush administration — were busy considering their options, eyeing each other in what will be a game of wills playing out in the coming days and weeks. [...]

If Pakistan becomes more chaotic and "there's a feeling nobody is providing any kind of leadership, those who are really well-organized could begin to fill the void," said Rick Barton, a Pakistan expert at the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies, "and that could be some of the religious groups."

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