Sanam Bhutto should clarify her position

I HAVE read Fatima Bhutto’s book Songs of Blood and Swords. It was very well-written and gives an insight into the Bhuttos, especially the intellectual ones like Fatima herself.

Sanam Bhutto wrote in Dawn on April 30, stating that her brothers were wrong the whole time and the way they acted after their father’s hanging were not in accordance with his wishes.

She wrote that Benazir stood up and avenged her father’s hanging by taking the PPP to the polls. That’s the only criticism she has against Fatima’s book.

But Sanam failed to address Murtaza Bhutto’s death during her sister’s government and till now the killers have not been brought to justice.

Fatima’s book clearly shows how the killing took place and how her aunt Benazir failed to find the killers or was unwilling to do so.

Murtaza and Shahnawaz both had no choice but to flee abroad after their father’s arrest and tried to get support from foreign states, especially Muslim countries which had good ties with Pakistan thanks to Z.A. Bhutto. But all this failed as he was hanged and as a result two ‘terrorists’ were created.

Were they really ‘terrorists’, Ms Sanam Bhutto? They were avenging your father’s hanging against Zia’s regime. To some they were freedom-fighters, and to some terrorists.

Fatima Bhutto has claimed in her book that while in exile Murtaza Bhutto would plan attacks on Zia’s regime only and not on civilians as claimed by Zia and Sanam.

Murtaza was willing to face court to fight all the cases levelled/led by Zia and his sister’s government.

So I hope Sanam would come out in the open and is willing to listen to the facts that her own niece has compiled. She should clarify her position rather than coming out and claiming that her brothers were terrorists and didn’t represent the ideology of the PPP. I would ask her to read the book again with an open mind.

ZAEEM SIDDIQUI
Lahore


Source: http://www.dawn.com/wps/wcm/connect/dawn-content-library/dawn/the-newspaper/letters-to-the-editor/sanam-should-clarify-her-position-750