Fatima Bhutto's book Songs of Blood and Sword

Power games within the Bhutto family are becoming a major story worldwide. And this story is in limelight again, with the book Songs of Blood and Sword by Fatima Bhutto.

I have always admired Benazir Butto, and I see something similar in Fatima Bhutto too…



Fatima, a poet and a writer, came to fame after the appearance of her first book, a collection of poems, titled Whispers of the Desert. She received notable coverage for her second book, 8:50 a.m. about Major Earthquake in Islamabad. It is said that she writes with her tears, but with courage..

Fatima spoke fondly of her aunt Benazir Bhutto during her talk at the Literary Festival, recounting how she had known Benazir through a very difficult time in her life, on 25th Jan 2008 when in India.

This week sees the launch of Fatima Bhutto's book Songs of Blood and Sword, which seems to reveal the inside story of the assassination of Murtaza Bhutto, the deep divisions between the Bhutto family.

Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, founder of the Pakistan Peoples Party, served as president of Pakistan from 1971 to 1973 and as prime minister from 1973 to 1977. On March 18, 1978, Bhutto was found guilty of murder and sentenced to death. Bhutto did not seek an appeal. On March 24, 1979 the Supreme Court dismissed the appeal. Zia upheld the death sentence. Bhutto was hanged at Adiyala Jail,Rawalpindi. On 4 April, 1979 at 2.04am PST; that was this day in History…
He had three children, Benazir, elder daughter and two sons Murtaza and Shahnawaz.

Shahnawaz was murder in 1986. As Fatima Bhuttos, father was arrested and jailed in 1993, she asked her aunt, who at that time had protested her innocence to come and visit him, and she told her that she would arrange something. But then she said: I am sorry, I can't come and visit Mir with you in jail because I haven't been able to get permission from the jail superintendent.


Benazir Butto born on 21 June 1953 was well educated from Pakistan, US, and UK, charismatic, and diplomatic. She was sworn in as Prime Minister for the first time in 1988 at the age of 35, but was removed from office 20 months later. In 1993 she was re-elected but was again removed in 1996. She went into self-imposed exile in Dubai in 1998.


Bhutto returned to Pakistan on 18 October 2007, and was assassinated on 27 December 2007, after departing a PPP rally in the Pakistani city of Rawalpindi, two weeks before the scheduled Pakistani general election of 2008 Bhutto was well aware of the risk to her own life that might result from her return from exile to campaign for the leadership position. She even said in an interview, that anybody would die when it is time.

The people behind are not identified, but the ultimate beneficiary is Asif Ali Zardari..

To the author, on Benazir’s death, in her words ‘All of a sudden, she stopped being the political opponent of recent times and went back to being the Wadi Bua of my childhood games, when I was five and she was thirty-five. They tell me she was killed by a bullet in the neck. Just like my father Murtaza, her brother. I've sort of suspended judgment. I've stopped accusing her of complicity in his murder in 1996. That was Benazir when she was alive: the bad aunt, the corrupt, unscrupulous feudal leader who stripped us of everything out of sheer lust for power. Now she is Wadi Bua again: my flesh and blood, another murdered member of the family, all to be mourned together -- without distinction."

It's very complicated. I can't think of her except as the two sides. I can't see her alone as one. While she was out of power, she was a woman who faced great suffering, who was incredibly vulnerable and brave. But, on the other hand, when she was in power, she inflicted much of the suffering that she endured on thousands of people.

I think Benazir was a very complex person to me. There was also a time when she was my favourite aunt. She was a very complex person but I think, in answer to your question, perhaps this is the nature of the beast. I think power is an overwhelming, transformative, and very often, a destructive force. And Benazir was not immune to its power.

This is a story of a famous, royal family, but there are similar stories, in many places many countries, the severity,rumour and outcome varies...

Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely, Indeed Violence bigots Violence and infliction of death in turn leads to deaths door…
Death is common to all, and nothing lasts for ever…….Just the way differs......Everything is planned??