Fatima Bhutto says her blood froze twice

Sunday, April 04, 2010
By By Muhammad Saleh Zaafir
ISLAMABAD: Fatima Bhutto says in her recently published book that her blood froze the day when Asif Ali Zardari was elected president of the country and her blood again froze when Asif Ali Zardari, during his address to the joint session of parliament, paused and asked for a moment of silence in honour of death of his brother-in-law Murtaza Bhutto.

She said that Zardari’s election to president prompted to send her younger brother Zulfi abroad, fearing for his safety.

She says that inspite of the violence her family has suffered, including the killing of her father Murtaza Bhutto, she “could never leave” the country.

“Amidst all this madness, all these ghosts and memories of times past, it feels like the world around me is crumbling, slowly flaking away,” she writes in her just-published memoir, “Songs of Blood and Sword”. Fatima Bhutto is an Afghan born poetess and writer. She studied at the Columbia University in the United States, and the School of Oriental and African Studies at the University of London. She currently writes columns for some newspapers. Fatima is every inch a staunch Pakistani. Her book has appeared just a week before the death anniversary of her grandfather.

“Sometimes, when it’s this late at night (she writes in the Epilogue dated April 2009), I feel my chest swell with a familiar anxiety. I think, at these times, that I have no more place in my heart for Pakistan. I cannot love it any more. I have to get away from it for anything to make sense; nothing here ever does.

“But then the hours pass, and as I ready myself for sleep as the light filters in through my windows, I hear the sound of mynah birds. And I know I could never leave,” Fatima writes.

“Songs of Blood and Sword” tells the story of a family of rich feudal landlords -- the proud descendents of a warrior caste -- who became powerbrokers in the newly created state of Pakistan. It is an epic tale full of romance and legend of feudal life, the glamour and licence of the international political elite and ultimately, the tragedy of four generations of a family defined by a political idealism that would destroy them. The history of this extraordinary family mirrors the tumultuous events of Pakistan itself, and the quest to find the truth behind her father’s murder has led Fatima to the heart of her country’s volatile political establishment. It is the history of a nation from Partition through the struggle with India over Kashmir, the Cold War, the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan up to the post 9/11 ‘War on Terror’. It is also a book about a daughter’s love for her father and her search to uncover, and to understand, the truth of his life and death. It is a book about a family and nation driven by murder, corruption, conspiracy and division, written by one who has lived it, in the heart of the storm. “Songs of Blood and Sword” is a book of international significance by a young woman who has already established herself as a brave and passionate campaigner.

Online adds: Fatima Bhutto says her “blood froze” on the day Asif Ali Zardari became the president and prompted her to send away her younger brother from the country fearing for his safety.

“On 20th September 2008, on the 12th anniversary of Papa’s death, Asif Zardari took 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.

“As he stood in front of the 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,” Fatima writes.

Zardari’s ascendancy also saw Fatima packing off her younger brother Zulfi. In the epilogue, dated April 2009, Fatima writes: “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 a 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.

Source: http://www.thenews.com.pk/print1.asp?id=232540