I remember as if it was yesterday. Benazir telling me with such sorrow that she was convinced that General Zia had personally ordered the murder of her younger brother, Shahnawaz, and that elements of the Pakistan military were behind the death of her other brother, Murtaza.

As for herself, Benazir said, her grass roots popularity had been a thorn in the side of Zia and all his successors. “Therefore for a series of people I must be eliminated. The first successor (Zia) tried to eliminate me, to impose a one party rule in the country. Now the military again wants to eliminate me because they want the MMA — the alliance of religious parties — to be the only alternative in the country.”

Shyam Bhatia, editor of Asian Affairs, is based in London