By Azhar Masood
There are news that Old leader ship of Pakistan People’s Party is gathering around Fatima Bhutto; it is believed that Asif Ali Zardari is no more a suitable person for the Chairpersonship of Pakistan’s most popular Political party; who’s leaders including Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto, Benazir Bhutto, Mir Murtaza Bhutto, have sacrificed their lives.
Fatima Bhutto, niece of the slain former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, said in comments published yesterday that she would continue to pursue her aunt’s widower, Asif Ali Zardari, whom she accuses of involvement in her father’s death. Fatima’s father - Benazir’s brother, Murtaza - was killed in 1996 in an ambush that Fatima blames on both Benazir and Zardari who is now the head of the ruling Pakistan People’s Party (PPP). “We are currently waiting for Zardari’s acquittal judgment. But I am not going to give up this struggle. I am not going to sit down quietly. This is about justice. I will continue to do all I can to stand between Zardari and a clean record,” Fatima told The Sunday Times in an interview.
Zardari is set to be acquitted of four murder charges, including the one for Murtaza, and several corruption allegations under the terms of an agreement - the National Reconciliation Ordinance (NRO) - between Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf and Benazir. The newspaper said the NRO, which dismisses all outstanding charges against political figures, had been signed by Musharraf under pressure from the US and had been insisted upon by Benazir before her return to Pakistan last year.
Fatima also blames Benazir for Murtaza’s murder, telling the newspaper: “If she didn’t sign the death warrant, then who else had the power to cover it up? I would love to believe in the innocence of my aunt, but why else did she so obviously obstruct the investigation?” A tribunal set up to probe Murtaza’s killing concluded the assassination could not have taken place “without approval from the highest level of government.”
Asked if she feared for her own safety, Fatima said: “Well, I am certainly very afraid for this country. Even before Zardari, this was a country where anything can happen, a country whose own people regularly disappear… You just don’t know what’s waiting for you, especially if you stand up and say what you think. “So perhaps I should be anxious. After all, this man knows no limits. He has a record. He has, as they say, form. And he is now clearly indulging in the politics of revenge and retribution. It’s nothing new - it is how he has always been. But what can you do? You just have to carry on as you can, and try to tell the truth as you see it.”- Arab News
Fatima Bhutto was born in Kabul on May 29, 1982. General Zia had recently seized power in one of Pakistan’s periodic military coups, and the Bhuttos were in disarray: the patriarch of the family, the deposed prime minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, had been hanged three years earlier, and Murtaza was in exile from Pakistan in Soviet-controlled Afghanistan. From there he tried to organise the struggle against Zia, though Kabul was under daily assault by Afghan mujaheddin. Fatima’s life thus began as it has continued: as a stowaway in the hold of Pakistan’s history, shaped by her country’s succession of crises.
Fatima is now a strikingly beautiful 25-year-old, fresh from a university education in New York and London. She is sassy and clever, a respected poet and an outspoken columnist in the Pakistani press. Fatima’s first action was to publish the book of poems she had been working on, which her father had titled Whispers of the Desert. She also fought to keep the family together when Benazir encouraged Fatima’s biological mother, Fauzia, to return from the US to seek custody of Fatima from Ghinwa in the Pakistani courts.
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