There may be bad news for Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari and his son Bilawal, chairman of the ruling PPP: Benazir Bhutto’s niece Fatima Bhutto, grandaughter of PPP founder Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto, may stand in the next general elections.
Fatima’s mother Ghinwa Bhutto, who leads the breakaway PPP (Shaheed Bhutto), said her daughter had decided to join active politics. She said in Bahawalpur that Fatima will “stand for the National Assembly from Liaquatpur NA-192”. Fatima herself, though, tweeted she was not joining politics, and had earlier said she “ruled a political career out entirely due to the effect of dynasties on Pakistan”.
Fatima, 30, daughter of Benazir’s brother Murtaza, is well-known internationally as an activist and writer, and had visited India two years ago to promote her third book Songs of Blood and Sword, focusing on her slain father and the circumstances of his 1996 murder. She is a strong critic of her cousin Bilawal, now being groomed for a larger role.
Ghinwa Bhutto, addressing party workers at Bahawalpur, claimed the “murderers of Murtaza and Benazir” had become the “fake heirs of the PPP” and were misusing the Bhutto name.