Like aunt, like niece

Posted On Tuesday, April 06, 2010 Anil Nair

Fatima Bhutto has that patented Bhutto looks and wears her make-the-world-safe-for-our-children passion on her designer kurta sleeve.

Fatima Bhutto

Fatima Bhutto has that patented Bhutto looks and wears her make-the-world-safe-for-our-children passion on her designer kurta sleeve. She also seems to have one other thing that runs dangerously in that family - a streak of hubris, in the classical sense of that term. When she was only 14, her father Murtaza was gunned down in front of their Karachi residence by police hitmen sent by his sister Benazir Bhutto, then PM of Pakistan. Years later, just before her own assassination, Benazir was to insinuate that Murtaza brought it upon himself.

Fatima doesn’t even remotely entertain this possibility; that the mini replica of the two-pointed sword of Hazrat Ali, the first Imam of Shia Islam, that Murtaza wore on his neck on the day he died was portentous. Her proven democratic credentials, and her categorical denial that she will “absolutely not” become a political figure notwithstanding, Fatima’s public persona bears an uncanny resemblance to Benazir. Dynasty could still be her destiny. Excerpts from the interview:

BM:You speak about the two Benazirs you have known - the idealist, vulnerable one and the total antithesis. Assuming that one day you too could come to play a crucial role in Pakistani politics, can you say with any amount of certainty that you will not follow the same trajectory.
FB: That could happen only if I envisage a role in Pakistani politics. I am absolutely cutting out that ‘if’. There shouldn’t be space for an ‘if’ in a country like Pakistan. I am content to be a writer.

Allegations that your slain father Murtaza Bhutto wasn’t exactly a saint?
Have I said anywhere he was. I didn’t set out to write a book proclaiming him to be one. When Murtaza saw diplomacy fail, he resorted to armed struggle against Zia-ul-Haq’s regime. Later he switched over to more democratic means.

No, but what about other violent incidents? There is this story that William Dalrymple, who has extensively written about Pakistan, reports - of how weeks before his death, Murtaza called Asif Ali Zardari over to your home, 70 Clifton, had his bodyguards shave half of Zardari’s moustache - the ultimate disgrace in a macho society. Would you then expect Zardari not to retaliate as he saw fit?
I have heard of all these stories and how they used to call my father ‘terrorist prince’, ‘trigger-happy’, ‘adventurous’ etc. In any case, who is Dalrymple to tell us our own stories?

Have you really had the time to grieve for your father? Was your book therapeutic in that sense?
Anyone who has lost a loved one, especially in a violent manner, knows that grief is not a linear process. One can’t grieve in a five stages-and-done kind of way. The form of grieving changes with the years. The only thing I can say categorically about grief is that it is not self-indulgent.

You single out corruption, pervasive corruption, as the single largest bane of Pakistani society. You almost seem to have a sneaking sympathy for the Taliban. One gets the sense that you consider them the lesser evil than, say, your country’s present regime...
The Taliban flog women, the Pakistani state does the same thing in an instituitionalised manner. A rag-tag group like the Taliban has no nuance, just a primitive philosophy. It grows because the state leaves behind a vacuum.

Talking about nuance, you recently spoke about how Obama broke your heart?
Like so many others, I was incredibly excited about Obama. He seemed so refreshingly honest, so nuanced and then there he goes lumping Pakistan and Afghanistan together and calling the entire US strategy against terror Af-Pak. I am mortified, it’s so Bush-like.

Source :
http://www.bangaloremirror.com/article/31/2010040620100406022821518e4f6eeac/Like-aunt-like-niece.html