Songs of Blood and Sword:Fatima's book on Bhutto Family
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Benazir, the PM, was cruel: Fatima Bhutto
Fatima Bhutto, the outspoken niece of former Pakistani Prime Minster Benazir Bhutto, is in India to release her book 'Songs of Blood and Sword' on the tale of one of Pakistan's most powerful family.
Speaking to NDTV in an exclusive interview, she said President Asif Ali Zardari was behind her father Murtaza's death and the moral responsibility laid with her aunt Benazir Bhutto.
"Before Zardari ascended to the presidency, he was facing four murder cases in the courts of Pakistan that were quickly wiped clean. He was acquitted in the middle of four ongoing trials involving the killing of 11 men. My father was one of them," she said.
"It's more important to speak about justice when you see that there's one law for the powerful and one law for the average citizen. I don't think it's for the first time that criminals have ascended to the highest posts in power. Certainly in Pakistan it's a new precedent for us. We need to be more aware as to who's leading this country at the moment," she added.
"There is certainly a moral responsibility for my father's murder. And that lays squarely with his sister, my aunt Benazir's government. Benazir was the PM at the time and she presided over a state where security officials killed with impunity. Extra-judicial killings were the norm. Some 3000 men were killed in the two years of operation clean up which was led by the Karachi police. So moral responsibility absolutely rests with the government," she further said.
Fatima also said her aunt was two different people for her - one who used to bring her books to read, and the other who was the Prime Minister and was cruel.
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Benazir, the PM, was cruel: Fatima Bhutto
Fatima Bhutto, the outspoken niece of former Pakistani Prime Minster Benazir Bhutto, is in India to release her book 'Songs of Blood and Sword' on the tale of one of Pakistan's most powerful family.
Speaking to NDTV in an exclusive interview, she said President Asif Ali Zardari was behind her father Murtaza's death and the moral responsibility laid with her aunt Benazir Bhutto.
"Before Zardari ascended to the presidency, he was facing four murder cases in the courts of Pakistan that were quickly wiped clean. He was acquitted in the middle of four ongoing trials involving the killing of 11 men. My father was one of them," she said.
"It's more important to speak about justice when you see that there's one law for the powerful and one law for the average citizen. I don't think it's for the first time that criminals have ascended to the highest posts in power. Certainly in Pakistan it's a new precedent for us. We need to be more aware as to who's leading this country at the moment," she added.
"There is certainly a moral responsibility for my father's murder. And that lays squarely with his sister, my aunt Benazir's government. Benazir was the PM at the time and she presided over a state where security officials killed with impunity. Extra-judicial killings were the norm. Some 3000 men were killed in the two years of operation clean up which was led by the Karachi police. So moral responsibility absolutely rests with the government," she further said.
Fatima also said her aunt was two different people for her - one who used to bring her books to read, and the other who was the Prime Minister and was cruel.
.
Benazir, the PM, was cruel: Fatima Bhutto
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My blood froze when Zardari became president: Fatima Bhutto
NEW DELHI: Fatima Bhutto, niece of slain former Pakistani prime minister Benazir Bhutto, says her "blood froze" on the day Asif Ali Zardari became the country's president and prompted her to send away her younger brother from the country fearing for his safety.
Zardari was accused of plotting the murder of Fatima's father Murtaza Bhutto but had been acquitted of the charge.
"On 20 September, 2008, on the 12th anniversary of Papa's death, Asif Zardari took his oath as president of Pakistan. The ceremony had been scheduled for the day before, the 19th, but had been moved on the orders of the new president, who rescheduled his big day for Saturday, Papa's barsi," Fatima writes in her just-released memoir "Songs of Blood and Sword".
"As he stood in front of parliament, which had voted him into the post almost unanimously (in the same highly democratic way that General Musharraf was 'elected' president), he paused in his speech and asked for a moment of silence to mark the occasion of his brother-in-law's death. My blood froze. It was as if he was taunting us.
"But that would be nothing compared to what would follow. On Zardari's first Pakistan Day as president he would honour Shoaib Suddle, one of the most senior police officers present at the scene when my father was killed. Suddle was awarded Hilal-e-Imtiaz, a national medal in recognition of his services to the people of Pakistan. Shoaib Suddle was then made the head of the Federal Investigation Bureau," Fatima writes.
Murtaza was killed Sep 20, 1996, when Fatima was 14, in a shootout with police near his Karachi residence. On Dec 3, 2009, a Karachi court acquitted 20 policemen charged with the killing.
After Benazir's government was dismissed in 1996, Zardari was detained for having a part in Murtaza's assassination. However, no charges were ever proved for want of evidence as the scene of Murtaza's assassination was wiped clean before police investigators could arrive.
Zardari's ascendancy also saw Fatima packing off her younger brother Zulfi. In the epilogue, dated April 2009, Fatima writes: "As I finish this book, it feels as though the world around me is slowly collapsing. There is a peculiar sense of deja vu as I write about the death of my father. There is a similar danger, a tangible feeling that we are not safe. Seven months ago, I packed my bags and flew to see my brother off in a foreign country.
"Zulfi had enrolled for the start of his A-level year, twelfth grade, at a private school not far from our house in Karachi. Some of his friends had got into the same school. They had made plans for a more relaxed year in which they would be treated like college students. In the autumn of 2008 Zulfi had just turned eighteen and was aware how precarious our situation had become since Asif Zardari had acquitted himself in our father's murder case. He was aware that because of our history with the man now called president, we weren't safe in our country any longer.
"When Zardari announced himself as the PPP's unanimously chosen presidential candidate we knew he would stop at nothing to reach the pinnacle of power. There was no turning back for him. Against all odds, he was going to rule Pakistan. We made the decision to take Zulfi out of the country. It was decision we had been avoiding, hoping it would not be necessary, since Benazir was killed in December 2007.
"But as Zulfi was the only surviving male heir of the Bhuttos, we couldn't take the risk of leaving him vulnerable. Besides Zulfi, the only remaining Bhuttos are (cousin) Sassi and I. We don't live in a country with a free press, we don't live in a country with an independent judiciary - or any judiciary for that matter. We have no safeguards against a violent and vindictive government," Fatima writes.
The book comes at a time when Zardari is set to be deprived of his sweeping powers through a constitutional amendment being tabled in parliament Friday to transfer to the prime minister major powers like the appointment of armed forces chiefs and reduce the president to a titular head of state.
The Bhutto family has had to contend with violence for the last four decades, losing one member every decade. Fatima's grandfather Zulfikar Ali Bhutto was executed in 1979 after what many consider to be a kangaroo trial. This was after he had been deposed as president by then army chief Gen Zia-ul Haq.
Her uncle Shahnawaz, 27, was found dead in Nice, France on July 18, 1985 under mysterious circumstances and the Bhutto family firmly believed he was poisoned. No one was brought to trial for the murder.
Her father, Murtaza, Shahnawaz's brother, was killed Sep 20, 1996, and her aunt Benazir was assassinated December 27, 2007.
My blood froze when Zardari became president: Fatima Bhutto - Pakistan - World - The Times of India
NEW DELHI: Fatima Bhutto, niece of slain former Pakistani prime minister Benazir Bhutto, says her "blood froze" on the day Asif Ali Zardari became the country's president and prompted her to send away her younger brother from the country fearing for his safety.
Zardari was accused of plotting the murder of Fatima's father Murtaza Bhutto but had been acquitted of the charge.
"On 20 September, 2008, on the 12th anniversary of Papa's death, Asif Zardari took his oath as president of Pakistan. The ceremony had been scheduled for the day before, the 19th, but had been moved on the orders of the new president, who rescheduled his big day for Saturday, Papa's barsi," Fatima writes in her just-released memoir "Songs of Blood and Sword".
"As he stood in front of parliament, which had voted him into the post almost unanimously (in the same highly democratic way that General Musharraf was 'elected' president), he paused in his speech and asked for a moment of silence to mark the occasion of his brother-in-law's death. My blood froze. It was as if he was taunting us.
"But that would be nothing compared to what would follow. On Zardari's first Pakistan Day as president he would honour Shoaib Suddle, one of the most senior police officers present at the scene when my father was killed. Suddle was awarded Hilal-e-Imtiaz, a national medal in recognition of his services to the people of Pakistan. Shoaib Suddle was then made the head of the Federal Investigation Bureau," Fatima writes.
Murtaza was killed Sep 20, 1996, when Fatima was 14, in a shootout with police near his Karachi residence. On Dec 3, 2009, a Karachi court acquitted 20 policemen charged with the killing.
After Benazir's government was dismissed in 1996, Zardari was detained for having a part in Murtaza's assassination. However, no charges were ever proved for want of evidence as the scene of Murtaza's assassination was wiped clean before police investigators could arrive.
Zardari's ascendancy also saw Fatima packing off her younger brother Zulfi. In the epilogue, dated April 2009, Fatima writes: "As I finish this book, it feels as though the world around me is slowly collapsing. There is a peculiar sense of deja vu as I write about the death of my father. There is a similar danger, a tangible feeling that we are not safe. Seven months ago, I packed my bags and flew to see my brother off in a foreign country.
"Zulfi had enrolled for the start of his A-level year, twelfth grade, at a private school not far from our house in Karachi. Some of his friends had got into the same school. They had made plans for a more relaxed year in which they would be treated like college students. In the autumn of 2008 Zulfi had just turned eighteen and was aware how precarious our situation had become since Asif Zardari had acquitted himself in our father's murder case. He was aware that because of our history with the man now called president, we weren't safe in our country any longer.
"When Zardari announced himself as the PPP's unanimously chosen presidential candidate we knew he would stop at nothing to reach the pinnacle of power. There was no turning back for him. Against all odds, he was going to rule Pakistan. We made the decision to take Zulfi out of the country. It was decision we had been avoiding, hoping it would not be necessary, since Benazir was killed in December 2007.
"But as Zulfi was the only surviving male heir of the Bhuttos, we couldn't take the risk of leaving him vulnerable. Besides Zulfi, the only remaining Bhuttos are (cousin) Sassi and I. We don't live in a country with a free press, we don't live in a country with an independent judiciary - or any judiciary for that matter. We have no safeguards against a violent and vindictive government," Fatima writes.
The book comes at a time when Zardari is set to be deprived of his sweeping powers through a constitutional amendment being tabled in parliament Friday to transfer to the prime minister major powers like the appointment of armed forces chiefs and reduce the president to a titular head of state.
The Bhutto family has had to contend with violence for the last four decades, losing one member every decade. Fatima's grandfather Zulfikar Ali Bhutto was executed in 1979 after what many consider to be a kangaroo trial. This was after he had been deposed as president by then army chief Gen Zia-ul Haq.
Her uncle Shahnawaz, 27, was found dead in Nice, France on July 18, 1985 under mysterious circumstances and the Bhutto family firmly believed he was poisoned. No one was brought to trial for the murder.
Her father, Murtaza, Shahnawaz's brother, was killed Sep 20, 1996, and her aunt Benazir was assassinated December 27, 2007.
My blood froze when Zardari became president: Fatima Bhutto - Pakistan - World - The Times of India
i guess the book is banned in pakistan.
jaunty
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Saw her interview on ndtv with Barkha Dutt the other day. Here is the link to watch it online--
Fatima Bhutto remembers 'Wadi Bua'
Fatima Bhutto remembers 'Wadi Bua'
Kabir Panthi
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Fatima Bhutto launching her book in Delhi:
Fatima Bhutto, niece of the slain former Pakistan Prime Minister, Benazir Bhutto, with writer William Dalrymple at the launch of her book Songs of Blood and Sword' in New Delhi on Saturday.
The Hindu : National : Rooted in Pakistan
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^^^ Fatima is beautiful, and looks even more beautiful in saree and with bindiya!
Fatima Bhutto, niece of the slain former Pakistan Prime Minister, Benazir Bhutto, with writer William Dalrymple at the launch of her book Songs of Blood and Sword' in New Delhi on Saturday.
The Hindu : National : Rooted in Pakistan
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^^^ Fatima is beautiful, and looks even more beautiful in saree and with bindiya!
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