Yesterday's assassination of Pakistan's Opposition leader, Benazir Bhutto, is likely to fuel the instability in that country, with potential consequences far beyond its borders.

This instability is the immediate danger against which all people interested in peace and global security must guard against. In that regard, Jamaica and its partners in the Caribbean Community (Caricom) cannot feel themselves too far removed from the situation. Theirs must join the voices of reason and rationality. At the same time, however, those countries with the appropriate muscle and influence must act with speed to help prevent the worsening of what is already a crisis.

First, President Pervez Musharraf must be warned to tread carefully, to resist any attempt to manipulate yesterday's event for his own political benefit. Such an act could precipitate an internal conflagration.

It is critical, too, that Pakistan's powerful allies immediately engage in diplomatic initiatives to soothe regional nerves, particularly its nuclear rival, India.

But more than anything else, it is important that the Pakistani state, with its nuclear weapons, not fall into the hands of radical Islamists, who are among the early suspects of Ms. Bhutto's murder. Pakistan is likely to have a better shot at long-term political and social stability in an environment of democracy.

Here is where it becomes problematic, demanding skill and commitment from all Pakistani political stakeholders, and support from their international supporters.

Ms. Bhutto, having a mere two months ago returned to Pakistan from nearly a decade of exile, was assassinated while campaigning for elections scheduled for January 8, which President Pervez Musharraf had sought to postpone. It took pressure from his Western allies for Musharraf to go ahead with the elections, step down as head of the army, and lift a state of emergency.

But, by the time he acquiesced, the tenuous accord, under which Ms. Bhutto had returned to Pakistan, with the aim of working with Musharraf for a transition to democracy, had broken down. She became a harsh critic of Musharraf, the former army chief against whom she had begun to work with Nawaz Sharif, himself a political rival, who is also seeking the prime ministership in the planned elections.

In the murky world of Pakistani politics, therefore, anyone might have been behind the murder of Ms. Bhutto, who had survived a previous assassination attempt the day she returned home on October 19. They could have been al-Qaida or Taliban militants, people in the army and security services opposed to democracy, or supporters of General Musharraf. Indeed, on the same day Ms. Bhutto was killed, Sharif survived an assassination attempt. Now, Sharif has said his party will boycott the parliamentary and prime ministerial elections.

Perhaps in the existing atmosphere of anger and distrust, January 8 might be too early to go ahead with the poll, particularly with the best-known and front-running candidate having been eliminated by murder. We believe that the election should not be postponed for too long, lest the murderers - whoever they are - believe that they have won by seeking to extend perceived gains with more violence.

General Musharraf has a responsibility to reach out to all legitimate players in a commitment to democracy and to decide on a feasible date for elections. In the meantime, there has to be a signal that Pakistan is stable and that its nuclear arsenal remains in the hands of sane people.