Join us to Seek Justice for Mir Murtaza Bhutto

Friday, July 30, 2010

Edinburgh festival- Fatima Bhutto 15th August

Fatima Bhutto


Fatima Bhutto

The tragic story of Pakistan’s great political dynasty

The Times Event

Sunday 15 August

3:00pm - 4:00pm

RBS Main Theatre

£10.00, £8.00

Book Tickets

When Fatima Bhutto’s father was murdered by Pakistani police in 1996, Benazir Bhutto – her aunt – was Prime Minister. Fatima became a passionate critic, claiming that Benazir had ordered her father’s murder. A decade later, Benazir herself was assassinated. Now, in Songs of Blood and Sword, Fatima Bhutto reveals the tragic history of a political dynasty whose fate mirrors the tumultuous events of Pakistan itself since its independence in 1947.

Part of our New World Order series of events.


Source:

http://www.edbookfest.co.uk/the-festival/whats-on/fatima-bhutto


Wednesday, July 21, 2010

Fatima Bhutto at the DSC South Asian Literature Festival

Prize-winning authors confirmed for the Festival

The DSC South Asian Literature Festival will be showcasing a cast of well-known personalities from the worlds of literature, journalism and performing arts.

We can now begin to reveal that the Festival, which will follow the 2010 Commonwealth Games in Delhi, has confirmed Channel 4′s longstanding broadcast journalist Jon Snow, prized writer Romesh Gunesekera, author and musician Amit Chaudhuri and from Pakistan’s troubled political dynasty, Fatima Bhutto, among others to feature in the two-week programme.

The Festival will imaginatively combine South Asian literature with various other disciplines and artforms, including journalism, dance, visual art and music to explore the social, political and cultural issues that are shaping today’s world.

Political dynasties on stage for the first time
In a never-before-seen, on-stage encounter between descendants of India and Pakistan’s political dynasties, the Nehru and Bhutto families, Nayantara Sahgal and Fatima Bhutto will share their experiences of growing up in such powerful and turbulent circumstances. The discussion will be moderated by well-known and respected journalist Maya Jaggi. Young and gutsy, Fatima Bhutto is the author of a recent controversial book of memoirs, Songs of Blood and Sword.

Festival Dates :
London : 15-24 October 2010
Rest of UK : 28-31 October 2010

Look out for her events in the local papers.

Source :
http://southasianlitfest.com/2010/07/and-the-authors-are/

Tuesday, July 20, 2010

Campaign For Justice for Mir Murtaza Bhutto- July




Obviously freedom of the people on the right side of things is a throne in the side of those in power for so obvious reasons. So to be safe they are kept behind bars so that the machinery of power is not affected. But who is actually afraid of this confinement, those put away wrongly or those claiming freedom?

The ultimate freedom belongs to justice after all. Because even while being free the wrong doers are confined & tortured by their deep inside conscious & they spend their freedom trying to clam these feelings down. In the end justice will always take its course & the truth will surface in front of everybody. As the saying goes, “You can fool some of the people all of the time & all of the people some of the time but you can’t fool all of the people, all of the time.









In Solidarity
Fatima Bhutto Fan club






Disclaimer: None of the views expressed here are of Fatima Bhutto or any of her family members. These are views of the team...

Copyright: Fatima Bhutto Fan club.
Please do not reproduce this anywhere without permission.

Friday, July 16, 2010

Fatima Bhutto Event at the Edinburgh International Book Festival -15th August 2010

Edinburgh International Book Festival is held from 14th to 30th August 2010 in Charlotte Square Gardens, Edinburgh from 9.30am to late. Admission is free. To book phone 0845 373 5888.

The Edinburgh International Book Festival is not just for those with a love of reading but is also inspiring for writers no matter how inexperienced or how young. Learn from the masters. What better city to rub shoulders with legendary authors like Fergal Keane, Carol Ann Duffy and Fay Weldon.

Listen to readings by the authors, take a masterclass in illustrating, writing workshops, book reading and activities for children and much more.

Sunday 15th August

15:00 THE TIMES EVENT FATIMA BHUTTO THE TRAGIC STORY OF PAKISTAN’S GREAT POLITICAL DYNASTY RBS MAIN THEATRE, £10 [£8]
When Fatima Bhutto’s father was murdered by Pakistani police in 1996, Benazir Bhutto – her aunt – was Prime Minister. Fatima became a passionate critic, claiming that Benazir had ordered her father’s murder. A decade later, Benazir herself was assassinated. Now, in Songs of Blood and Sword, Fatima Bhutto reveals the tragic history of a political dynasty whose fate mirrors the tumultuous events of Pakistan itself since its independence in 1947.

Source :

http://www.spiderwize.com/blog/bid/39541/Edinburgh-International-Book-Festival-August-2010

Books: Fatima Bhutto Q & A




Iman Qureshi, Thu 15 Jul 2010

28-year old Fatima Bhutto, progeny of the Pakistan’s famous political dynasty, is an author and journalist in her own right. As well as contributing to numerous publications including The Daily Beast and the New Statesman, she has published three books. The latest, Songs of Blood and Sword, documents the saga of the ill-fated Bhutto family, and has elicited both praise and controversy across the world.

What were your motivations and intentions behind writing Songs of Blood and Sword?

To break the silence that surrounds the culture of political violence in Pakistan and to preserve the memory and the history of that violence in an amnesiac nation.

Why the title?

It's from a poem by the Iranian poet Khusro Golsorkhi that I love. Golsorkhi, who was a great critic of the monarchy's corruption, feudalism and violence, was executed by the Shah's regime and I came across the poem again while I was writing and it resonated.

What was the process you went through writing this book – both research-wise, and on an emotional level?

It was a six-year-long journey. I travelled all over Pakistan, across Europe and America, cold-called strangers, sat in foreign libraries and trolled through archival material. That process of research was very important to me. It was a comfort too, because it gave me some space from what I was writing about in some instances. Emotionally, it was gruelling but intensely liberating.

What would you say to people who accuse you of being unashamedly partisan in Songs of Blood and Sword?

I can't divorce myself from my family. I am writing about people I knew, lived with and loved. That said, I was critical of my grandfather, Zulfikar, where I felt he deserved it—as in the case of the state's interference in Balochistan, among other issues for example—and the same for my father and aunt. I'm nobody's keeper. To understand why my family met such violent ends I had to take a critical look at them. Where I felt they thrived, I spoke clearly in their defense. But nothing is ever black and white.

How do you feel you fit in to the Bhutto dynasty?

I was born a Bhutto. It's a last name. That's how I see it. Others clearly disagree.

In what ways would you consider yourself political?

In every way, but one – I have no interest in participating in government.

I had a little giggle over your tweet: “It's Afghanistan. And Pakistan. They're not the same, Richard." I take it you’re critical of US involvement in Pakistan?

Afpak is such a moronic term, so wildly simplistic and so indicative of how American foreign policy works. I'm not a fan of Richard Holbrooke and his meddling in my country, no.

In past interviews with and articles about you, people seem fixated on the Bhutto family, and really seem to speak of little else. Do you get sick of speaking about the family?

I think all discussion is constructive so long as we're talking on political grounds, not personal ones. That said, I talk about a lot of things—women's rights in Pakistan, election laws, the freedom of the press, the war on terror—but I understand that people are curious about the family.

You seem very interested in British politics — you’ve been tweeting about Yarl’s Wood immigration removal centre, you write regularly for the New Statesman, and wrote a very funny letter to David Miliband. What are your thoughts on UK-Pakistan relations?

I think the British government has played a negative subsidiary role in Pakistan's politics, with David Miliband supplementing Secretary Clinton or Holbrooke's strong-arming. However, because of our colonial history British interference in Pakistani politics has a more sinister feeling. And the longer 10 Downing supports corrupt and criminal leadership in Pakistan, from the dictator General Musharaff to Zardari, that political resentment will remain. However, I love that the anti-war movement in Britain means something and that there is a true multitude of voices and opinions being heard in the realm of British politics.

How do you feel about the intermingling of politics and religion?

I think they should be separate.

You’ve moved around a lot – where is home for you?

Pakistan, always. But I have family from my mother's side in Lebanon, so I feel very at home there too, and Syria was where I grew up so I have always felt a belonging there too.

What do you miss about Pakistan when you’re away?

Oh, everything. I miss the sound of the motorcycles with their obnoxiously loud exhausts, the smell of the sea, fresh coconut water, the people... I could go on. I'm perpetually homesick.

What do you enjoy reading?

I just finished reading Herta Muller's The Land of Green Plums, which I found very moving and terrifying, and it has left me in a panicked search for more of her work in English. Before that I was reading The Memory of Love, Aminatta Forna's latest. She's a huge inspiration, I'm a huge fan. Janine di Giovanni's The Quick and the Dead on the fall of Sarajevo was another recent read. I'd been looking for it for some time and finally found a copy in a small bookstore in London. As for papers, I always look out for Henry Porter and Simon Jenkins. And I love A A Gill.

Source:

http://fest.theskinny.co.uk/article/99730-books-fatima-bhutto-q-a

Wednesday, July 14, 2010

Out of Station- Candid Photographs


Fatima Bhutto, Author

‘Cuba was memorable since two friends came with me’

This photograph is from a trip to Cuba in 2008. I was there to write about health-care and life after the Revolution but it was a memorable vacation because I spent time with two great friends who went with me. The photograph was taken in Santa Clara where Che Guevara secured victory, ending the dictator Fulgencio Batista’s regime.

How many times do you travel in a year: This year I've been to New York, Delhi, Bengaluru, Mumbai, London — all for work. Most expensive holiday: The Ubud Literary Festival in Bali was luxurious. Cheapest holiday: Driving with friends across Sindh in 2007. We stopped at Thatta, Hyderabad and Hala along the way. It was a ridiculous amount of fun. The holiday you hated: I’m not going back to Istanbul any time soon.

Source :

http://www.tehelka.com/story_main45.asp?filename=Ne290510my_favourite.asp

Thursday, July 8, 2010

Ilkley Literature Festival

Yorkshire’s very own chat show king Sir Michael Parkinson is heading the line up at this year’s Ilkley Literature Festival. Sir Michael is among a host of writers across fiction, journalism, poetry and non-fiction to appear at the 37th event. Ilkley Literature Festival was launched by poet WH Auden in 1973 in one of his last public appearances and each year more than 160 events take place in a variety of venues across the town.

There are projects and residencies involving local schools and community organisations. The first female poet laureate Carol Ann Duffy, Booker prize winner Roddy Doyle and The Guardian’s Polly Toynbee are set to appear on the bill. Time Traveller’s Wife author Audrey Niffenegger will make her debut at the festival and broadcaster Peter Snow will be exploring his new history To War with Wellington: From the Peninsula to Waterloo. Fatima Bhutto, Benazir Bhutto’s niece brings her family memoir, Songs of Blood and Sword to Ilkley and Nelson Mandela will be the subject of renowned anti-apartheid campaigner and Labour MP Peter Hain’s biography.

This year’s festival, which will run from October 1 to 17, will also have a programme of performances with the children’s festival weekend running from October 9 to 10. Festival director Rachel Feldberg said: “We’re delighted to have such a great line up already and this is just the start.

The complete Ilkley Literature Festival programme will be announced in July.

Tickets will be available to Friends of the Festival from August 18 and will go on general release on August 31.

Source http://www.ilkley-directory.co.uk/2010/07/ilkley-literature-festival/

The heir to the Bhutto family complaint

Fatima in a book reveals the intricacies of the most influential political dynasty in Pakistan

"With a family like this [Bhutto] does not need enemies," whispers Fatima Bhutto, 28, petite, frail and with a sense of humor. Subida a unos zapatos detacón de aguja, habla con fuerza y convicción de su familia, la dinastía más influyente en la historia de Pakistán, y lo que la rodea: asesinatos, corrupción y política. Subida a needle detacón shoes, speaks with force and conviction of his family, the most influential dynasty in the history of Pakistan and its surroundings: murder, corruption and politics. Y mantiene la esperanza de que en un par de generaciones su país será distinto con respecto a la política y la violencia. And holding out hope that in a couple of generations their country will be different with regard to politics and violence.

Fatima is the granddaughter of Zulfikar, the Pakistani president executed in 1979 under the dictatorship of General Zia ul Haq. También es hija del que podía haber sido su sucesor, Murtaza, si no hubiese sido asesinado en 1996, según Fatima, con el visto bueno de su hermana Benazir, entonces primera ministra y rival electoral, y su marido Asif Zardari, actual presidente paquistaní. It is also the daughter of which could have been his successor, Murtaza, had it not been assassinated in 1996, according to Fatima, with the approval of his sister Benazir, then prime minister and electoral rival, and her husband Asif Zardari, Pakistan's current president.

Raised halfway between Kabul, Tripoli, Paris and Damascus, was 14 when his father was gunned down near his home in Karachi, southern Pakistan. Con su muerte desapareció la única referencia fija en su vida, dado que su madre biológica se había alejado, tras divorciarse, cuando ella tenía sólo tres años. With his death the only fixed reference disappeared in her life since her birth mother had moved away, following his divorce, when she was only three years. El presunto complot familiar fue uno de los motivos del distanciamiento entre tía y sobrina, hasta la muerte de Benazir , víctima de un sangriento atentado preelectoral en diciembre de 2007. The family alleged plot was one of the reasons for the estrangement between aunt and niece, until the death of Benazir, victim of a bloody pre-election attack in December 2007.

With this family background as saddlebags, Fatima began six years ago a journey that has resulted in the book Songs of Blood and Sword (Lyrics blood and sword), a title taken from Khosrow Golsurkhi Iranian poet, executed in 1972 under the regime of Shah .

The text denounces the repression of the governments of his grandfather and aunt. "Ser crítica con mi abuelo no implica ser desleal. Él hizo cosas extraordinarias, pero también cometió errores, como el trato que tuvo con las minorías", explica Fatima, quien recorre la historia de su familia de forma paralela a la de Pakistán, desde la división de India (1947), el conflicto de Cachemira, la Guerra Fría, la invasión soviética de Afganistán (ella nació en Kabul) y el Pakistán posterior al 11-S. "To be critical of my grandfather did not mean to be unfair. He did wonderful things, but also made mistakes, such as the treatment he had with minorities," said Fatima, who runs his family's history parallel to that of Pakistan, from the partition of India (1947), the Kashmir conflict, the Cold War, the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan (she was born in Kabul) and Pakistan after 11-S.

"Today, Pakistan has 180 million people, lack of infrastructure, schools, drinking water and electricity. On the other hand, is a nuclear power and we know from the cricket," he says of pulling in Asia House in London. En su documentado libro acusa a Benazir ya Zardari de estar implicados en la muerte de su padre, e insinúa, con el abogado francés JacquesVergés , que Benazir también tuvo algo que ver con el envenenamiento de su hermano menor, Shahnawaz. In his excellent books Benazir and Zardari accused of involvement in the death of his father, and implies, with the French lawyer JacquesVergés that Benazir also had something to do with the poisoning of his younger brother Shahnawaz.

At the end of the story, reading what you are doing the current president's legacy of Bhutto and the PPP (Pakistan People's Party), the reader comes to believe that Zardari was behind the murder of his wife. Pero eso Fatima no lo afirma. But why not Fatima says. "La vida de mi padre estaba marcada por la muerte de su padre y de su hermano. Las palabras dictador, asesino, ley marcial, cárcel eran parte de nuestro vocabulario cotidiano. Mi padre era muy crítico con el Gobierno de su hermana ", cuenta, preocupada por su propia seguridad y por la de su hermano Zulfikar, de 20 años, el único varón Bhutto aún con vida, a pesar de que Zardari haya cambiado a Bhutto el apellido de su hijo y sus dos hijas. "My father's life was marked by the death of his father and brother. The words dictator, murderer, martial law, jail were part of our everyday vocabulary. My father was very critical of the government of his sister," says Concerned for his own safety and that of his brother Zulfikar, 20, the only man still alive Bhutto, despite Bhutto Zardari has changed the name of his son and two daughters.

Fatima also fears for the safety of the persons identified in the book and opposing the current government. "Recibo muchos mensajes de Pakistán diciéndome que no regrese, de momento". "I get many messages telling me not to return Pakistan at the moment." El autoexilio, como la cárcel, es también habitual en la familia Bhutto. The self-exile, as the prison is also common in the Bhutto family.

Sceptical about diplomacy
Su padre y su tío aspiraban a heredar el liderazgo del PPP y formaron el Comité por la Libertad de Zulfikar Bhutto en 1976 cuando fue encarcelado. His father and uncle aspired to inherit the leadership of the PPP and formed the Committee for Freedom of Zulfikar Bhutto in 1976 when he was jailed. El comité se entrevistó con el senador TedKennedy, con Yasir Arafat, con Giscard d'Estaing y con Margaret Thatcher. The committee met with Senator TedKennedy, with Yasir Arafat, with Giscard d'Estaing and Margaret Thatcher.

Pero la diplomacia no salvó al presidente Bhutto, y los hermanos optaron por la lucha armada desde Afganistán. But diplomacy did not save President Bhutto, and the brothers opted for armed struggle from Afghanistan. "No estoy de acuerdo con aquella decisión, aunque entiendo que estaban desesperados por vengar la muerte de su padre", explica Fatima, escéptica con la eficacia de la diplomacia. "Mi padre quería ser Che Guevara" , añade. "I disagree with that decision, although I understand that they were desperate to avenge the death of his father," explains Fatima, skeptical to the effectiveness of diplomacy. "My father wanted to be Che Guevara," he adds. Ella no quiere meterse en política, asegura. She does not want to meddle in politics, he said. Prefiere "ser una voz desde fuera del sistema". He prefers to "be a voice from outside the system."


This is a Translation from Spanish to English

Source:
http://translate.google.com/translate?js=y&prev=_t&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&layout=1&eotf=1&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.publico.es%2Finternacional%2F326677%2Fheredera%2Fbhutto%2Fdenuncia%2Ffamiliares%2Ffatima%2Fpakistan&sl=auto&tl=en