For close to half a century, dynastic rule and succession have established a virtual stranglehold on not only South Asia but also far beyond. Nor is the phenomenon confined to Asian countries extending from the Philippines and Indonesia to Syria and possibly Egypt by any means. Consider what has happened in the United States seven seas away. Four years of George Bush

Senior’s presidency were followed first by eight years of Bill Clinton in the White House and then eight years of George Bush Junior. And now Hillary Clinton is making a determined bid to reign at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue for another eight years. Imagine the ramifications if she does succeed to realise her ambition. But let that pass, if only because the principal and pertinent point today is different.

It is that even after full allowance has been made for the astonishing durability of the dynastic dispensation across a large part of the world — that’s globalisation of sorts — what has come to pass in Pakistan, in the wake of Benazir Bhutto’s brutal assassination is surely unusual, if not weird. In the first place, it is remarkable that however horrifying her murder may have been, it was not surprising — certainly the foreboding was not to her. Or else she would not have written her will and last testament two days before returning home after long years of self-exile. Secondly, in her will she had named her husband, Asif Zardari, her political successor. But he summarily announced that his late wife’s mantle as the chairperson of the Pakistan People’s Party would fall on the shoulders of their 19-year-old son, Bilawal Bhutto Zardari.

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