KARACHI, 28 December 2007 - The assassination of former prime minister and life chairperson of Pakistan Peoples Party, Benazir Bhutto brought a tragic end to an illustrious dynasty in Pakistan and placed the PPP on the cross roads of its history.
Her tragic end resembles in many ways history's treatment of the Kennedys in America, and the Indian family of Jawaharlal Nehru. Not only was the former US President John F. Kennedy assassinated in the 60s, but most of his family members met a violent death. India's first Prime Minister Pandit Nehru died a natural death, but her daughter Indira was killed by her guards as prime minister, and her two sons Sanjay, who died in a plane crash in 1980 and later Rajiv, who died in a suicide attack in early 90s.
The family is now trying to stage a come back with Sonia, Rajiv's widow as President of the Indian Congress party, and her two children taking part in politics.
The late Z. A. Bhutto was hanged after a controversial supreme court judgment, and all his three children met violent deaths. Benazir twice became Pakistan's prime minister 1988 and 1993 but after returning from exile on Oct. 18 this year with America's blessings, she was eliminated gruesomely in Rawalpindi's Liaqaut Bagh. Bhutto's two sons, Murtaza and Shahnawaz died prematurely too. Shahnawaz was the first to go after the death of his father when he was poisoned in France, allegedly by her Afghan wife, and Murtaza was murdered in cold blood in a strange police shoot out near his house in Clifton on Sept. 20, 1996. Benazir was then the prime minister but saw it happening helplessly.
Murtaza's widow, Lebanon-born Ghinva lives with her daughter Fatima and son Zulfikar in the house which Murtaza had inherited from his father. Benazir was contesting elections for a parliamentary seat from her home town Larkana and was hot favorite to be the prime minister for a third time.
She had a deal with President Gen. Pervez Musharraf at a meeting in Abu Dhabi that saw her get a clean slate about alleged corruption practices, including acculmultation of "ill-gotten" wealth while being in office.
Benazir was cautious in her comments against Musharraf in electioneering aware of the fact that she may have to work with him after the Jan. 8 parliamentary polls. She was born in 1953 from Bhutto's second wife, Nusrat, a lady of Iranian descent, and was educated at Karachi's Convent and Jesus School, and later at Harvard and Oxford universities.
As a young girl she was brilliant public speaker and even conducted television programs when her father was in power in the 70s. The program on Pakistan's foreign policy was instant hit with the viewers for its critical expose.
Fond of sports cars and stylish life style, she had to change herself to a typical Pakistani woman after being forced to enter politics after her father's execution. Some say she was a brilliant opposition leader but a controversial prime minister. Like her father, she too excelled in oratory, and debate on important issues. She had excellent command over English and was an international celebrity. As a politician she kept hundreds of thousands of her followers and supports spell bound with her not so good command of the Urdu language, but nevertheless was a crowd puller, a quality which coupled with vision, helped her ascend to authority twice within a short span of five years.
With her death Pakistan has lost a leader, and her party and the people of the country have become poorer. It was a great loss, a brilliant career cut short.
