But the marriage worked, even as Benazir came to power for the first time in December 1988. “The surprising part is that we are very close and that it’s been a very good match,” she told Dreifus.

The marriage may have been made in heaven, but there was hell to pay. During Benazir’s two tenures as prime minister, Zardari, described by Tariq Ali as ‘the deadly angel who guided her’, was accused of corruption, embezzlement, extortion, blackmail and murder.

Benazir’s friends worried about the political fallout of her association with Zardari. On a visit to Karachi once, one such friend wailed to me about Zardari. I asked why she didn’t warn Pakistan’s prime minister about the damage being wrought by her husband. “It’s not possible,” said Benazir’s friend. “The moment you say something against Asif, a shutter drops and she stops listening.”

Benazir’s interview with Dreifus provided some insight into her deep attachment to Zardari. After she was first ousted from power in 1990, Benazir said she asked her mother and Zardari to flee Pakistan. She had been warned they would be imprisoned if she continued in politics and challenged Nawaz Sharif, who was now prime minister. Nusrat left, but Zardari refused. “I begged my husband to go,” she told Dreifus. “And he said to me: ‘I cannot abandon my wife and children. I would rather die than abandon all of you’.”

“Our bond grew much deeper as a consequence of his imprisonment, because he then shared what I had known (of her own and her father’s incarceration) and we became much closer emotionally,” Benazir added. “I feel there is someone to spoil me, to take care of me, comfort me. It’s so nice to have somebody who cares about you,” she said. “I was so lonely after my father died.”

... contd.