By IANS
Karachi/Lahore : Awaiting the Thursday homecoming of former Pakistani prime minister Benazir Bhutto are not just throngs of admirers and political workers, but also a feisty niece who thinks her aunt’s return would be “a disaster” for Pakistan.
Fatima Bhutto, daughter of Benazir’s slain brother Murtaza Bhutto, is an upcoming poet who has vowed to oppose Benazir whom the family accuses of being behind Murtaza’s killing.
According to the Telegraph, there are already signs that the former prime minister’s return may not run smoothly as several members of her family have promised to give her a frosty reception.
Leading the family revolt against her is 25-year-old Fatima who is tipped to be a future political star. She said that her aunt’s return would blight any hopes for Pakistan’s future.
“It will be a disaster,” she said. “She has already had two opportunities to run the country and has failed.”
Fatima is known in Pakistan as a “Bhutto ki tasweer” (copy of late prime minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, her grandfather) and possesses both the earnestness of a young idealist and the hauteur characteristic of leading members of the Bhutto clan.
According to the Telegraph report, Fatima fired the first salvo against her aunt by publishing a scathing article last month on the 11th anniversary of her father’s assassination.
The family has a history of dynastic feuds and she revived allegations that her aunt was implicated in her father’s death and that Benazir and her husband, Asif Ali Zardari, should face corruption charges.
Murtaza, whose relations with his sister were strained as he felt he should inherit their father’s political mantle, was shot dead by police in front of his home in 1996.
Fatima will enter politics in the coming months by helping to run a splinter faction of her aunt’s Pakistan People’s Party (PPP).
Mumtaz Bhutto, a cousin of Benazir and a senior PPP leader who left the party after Zulfiqar’s execution in 1979, also criticised Benazir for collaborating in a power-sharing deal with President Pervez Musharraf, which would see her become prime minister.
“If both of them get together they will devour the country’s remaining bones,” Mumtaz said.
On the other hand, Bhutto family friends are excited about the homecoming, The Daily Times said, adding that Benazir’s friends and extended family are gearing up to welcome her home.
“We have had a very long association with the Bhutto family,” said Ali Badar, son of PPP activist Jahangir Badar.
Ali told Daily Times that Benazir’s children would not accompany her but would remain in constant touch with their mother.