By IANS,
New Delhi : Fatima Bhutto, the niece of slain former Pakistani prime minister Benazir Bhutto, firmly believes the country’s establishment had a hand in the killing of her father Murtaza and uncle Shahnawaz.
She also blames Benazir for creating a rift in the Bhutto family by opening negotiations with then military dictator Gen. Zia-ul Haq for sharing political power.
Giving a graphic account of her father’s killing Sep 20, 1996 while returning to his Karachi home after a press conference, Fatima said: “The police was all over the area, in trees, on building, on the roads. The police stopped the car as it approached and opened fire. The orders could not have come but from the highest levels of government.”
Benazir was at that time serving her second stint as prime minister and it was the government’s “moral responsibility” to protect her father, Fatima maintained Saturday evening at the Indian launch of her memoir “Songs Of Blood And Sword”.
“The autopsy clearly showed that he had been shot at point blank range from the back,” Fatima pointed out.
After Benazir’s government was dismissed in 1996, her husband, Asif Ali Zardari, now the president of Pakistan, 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.
And, on Dec 3, 2009, a Karachi court acquitted 20 policemen charged with the killing.
“So, you have a situation in which no one was held responsible for my father’s killing. In fact, the policemen who were accused of having a hand were promoted or double-promoted and on his first Pakistan Day, Zardari even made one of them the head of the Federal Investigation Agency,” Fatima said.
Going further back in time, she recalled the death under mysterious circumstances of her uncle Shahnawaz in Nice, France on July 18, 1985.
“There was a family reunion underway and the family firmly believes Zia ordered the killing. One year later, Benazir is in negotiations with Zia for sharing power. That’s when the rift began,” Fatima said.
At an interactive session after the book launch, Fatima said she has no intention of entering politics and would continue to focus on her writing.
“No, I don’t have any intention of entering politics. I have always been a writer and will continue to focus on that,” she maintained.
Speaking at the launch, Mike Bryan, CEO and president of Penguin India, described the memoir as “one of the most remarkable books written on the sub-continent in recent times”.
“It is about a daughter’s journey to search for and uncover the truth of her father’s life and death. It is a story courageously told,” Bryan added.
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.
Shahnawaz was found dead July 18, 1985, Murtaza was killed Sep 20, 1996, and Benazir was assassinated December 27, 2007.