The attempted assassination of Benazir Bhutto on her return to Pakistan — an attack that she survived but that killed almost three dozen others — underlines her courage and that of other leaders in the pro-democracy movement around the world. It also illuminates the explosiveness of the situation as Pakistan moves toward a democratic order. Mrs. Bhutto set foot on Pakistani soil for the first time in eight years following arrangements reached with President Musharraf, who has ruled since he came to power in a military coup in 1999. She is a favorite in Washington, which hopes that her political comeback will shore up the fragile Pakistani government.

Beset by the opposition of militant Moslems who identify with the Taliban and Al Qaeda, the Musharraf government also alienated middle class and liberal opinion when it sought earlier this year to depose Pakistan’s chief justice because he feared the top judge would disqualify him from running for president while retaining his post as army chief. On Wednesday, the Court began reviewing petitions from Mr. Musharraf’s opponents, charging that the pro-American president-general’s re-election on October 6 to a third term was invalid because, though he was elected by the lawmakers, he could not run while still serving as army chief.

Mr. Musharraf had temporarily dodged the constitutional bullet by claiming in advance of the vote that he would resign as army chief — removing his “second skin,” the uniform — when he assumed office for his third five-year term on Nov. 15. But the assessment in Washington has been that the military led quasi-democratic government of Mr. Musharraf must broaden its base of public support if it is to accommodate American pressures to step up the fight against the Taliban and Al Qaeda forces hiding in Waziristan along Pakistan’s border with Afghanistan. Mrs. Bhutto’s return came after Mr. Musharraf signed a “reconciliation ordinance” that gave amnesty to politicians active in Pakistan between 1988 and 1999, effectively clearing Mrs. Bhutto of the corruption charges that forced her into exile eight years ago.

Should the court reject the petitions against Mr. Musharraf, and refrain from blocking the president’s deal with Mrs. Bhutto, lifting all corruption charges against her, Pakistan will be in for a spell of shared rule. The nation will go to elections in January, and there is some expectation Mrs. Bhutto and her Pakistan People’s Party will win. She will then become prime minister while Mr. Musharraf, shorn of his army role, will serve as president. The theory is that she would cede to him continued civilian control over the armed forces, foreign policy, and the fight against the terrorists. But that is a lot of power to hand over, and this arrangement could easily come unglued.

Mrs. Bhutto’s family history is intertwined with Pakistani politics — and violence. Her father, Zulkifar Ali Bhutto, was prime minister until his government was overthrown by a military coup in 1977. Bhutto himself was tried, found guilty of organizing a political murder, and executed by hanging in 1979. Mrs. Bhutto’s brothers then organized a splinter of the Pakistan People’s Party known as the Al-Zulfikar Organization, which was marginalized as terrorist. One brother, Shahnawaz Bhutto, died under shadowy circumstances in Paris in 1985. The second, Mir Murtaza Bhutto, was shot to death by police in 1996, during Mrs. Bhutto’s second term as prime minister.

That’s a context in which Bhutto-Musharraf deal looks awfully cozy — and could face some competition, particularly after the Court ruled this week that the ex-prime minister who was the victim of the coup that installed General Musharraf into the leadership, Nawaz Sharif, was not required to stay in exile and could return to Pakistan, as “no restraint can be placed on a Pakistani citizen to return.” This is how the stars are aligning for a resurgence of democracy in a country that is one of the theaters in the war on Islamist terror. As the smell of cordite is carried out of Karachi, one point to remember is how many have paid a steep price for democracy.