“With Asif, for once, I had somebody with whom I’d lay my hair on the pillow and feel I was safe.” — Benazir Bhutto on her husband Asif Ali Zardari.

AROUND two months before Benazir Bhutto was removed from office for the second time in 1996 on charges of corruption and misrule, her niece Fatima Bhutto telephoned the prime minister’s official residence in Islamabad.

Fatima was desperate—there had been a fierce gun battle near her house in Karachi and her father Murtuza Ali Bhutto, Benazir’s younger brother and political opponent, was missing.

According to an account Fatima later gave to London-based writer and left-wing activist Tariq Ali, it was Zardari who answered the phone call.

Relations between the Bhutto siblings were severely strained. The mercurial Murtuza had returned from exile to challenge his sister’s leadership of the ruling Pakistan People’s Party (PPP), created by their father Zulfikar Ali Bhutto. Their mother Nusrat had switched loyalties and now openly supported her son against her prime minister daughter. Many party functionaries also seemed to be secretly rooting for Murtuza, who was seen as unpredictable but honest.

Benazir’s main support in her public battle with her brother came from Zardari, who by then was popularly referred to across Pakistan as “Mr Ten Percent” for his legendary wheeling-dealing.

This is how Fatima recalled her telephone conversation with Zardari on that day in September 1996:
Fatima: I wish to speak to my aunt, please.
Zardari: It’s not possible.
Fatima: Why? (At this point, Fatima says she heard wails and what sounded like fake crying.)
Zardari: She’s hysterical, can’t you hear?
Fatima: Why?
Zardari: Don’t you know? Your father’s been shot.

... contd.