Slain former Pakistan Premier Benazir Bhutto’s children are using the social networking website Twitter to defend their father President Asif Ali Zardari and to settle scores with their cousin Fatima Bhutto.
“The man lampooned unfairly by the country’s powerful establishment as ‘Mr 10 per cent’ has in fact given 110 per cent back to the country,” read a tweet by Benazir’s elder daughter Bakhtawar Bhutto Zardari.
“For the first time in the history of this country, a democratically elected President has voluntarily given up his power.”
Bakhtawar tweeted when Mr Zardari signed into law a landmark constitutional reforms package which stripped the President of his sweeping powers. Bakhtawar’s brother Bilawal, who is co-chairman of the ruling Pakistan People’s Party, is also doing his best to popularise the party.
“I wish Zia (Gen Zia-ul-Haq) had lived. I wish he had lived to witness our revenge,” Bilawal, 21, tweeted some hours ago.
Bilawal tweeted a famous Zia quote, “Men are in charge of women because Allah has made one superior to the other... Good women are obedient”, and said that he wished the military dictator who died in 1988 had lived to see the new Pakistan.
“I wish he had lived despite the fact that he murdered members of my family. I wish he had lived to see the day we elected the Muslim world’s first female Prime Minister. I wish he had lived to see us elect the first female Speaker of our National Assembly,” Bilawal tweeted.
However, the tweets are not just about their parents. The Bhutto-Zardari siblings have also been tweeting about their pet peeve, cousin Fatima Bhutto, who recently released her tell-all book on the Bhutto dynasty.
Bakhtawar tweeted to her brother recently: “your sister doesn’t know how to spell my name. She keeps tweeting fake love to randomers. Sad now.” In another tweet she told Bilawal, “I know, you never tweet love me. Sigh. I’ll accept all the other mediums of love though so it’s okay.”