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Family feud over Benazir’s succession

LONDON: Barely days after the slain former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto’s 19-year-old son Bilawal was “coronated” as her successor to lead the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP), a family feud is reported to have erupted over the issue with Benazir’s septuagenarian uncle, Mumtaz Bhutto, questioning the succession on the ground that Bilawal is not a Bhutto.

He has also questioned the authenticity of Benazir’s supposed will calling it “suspect”. In identical comments to several Pakistan-based British journalists, Mr. Bhutto — first cousin of Benazir’s father, Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto and a co-founder of the PPP — described Bilawal’s decision to add Bhutto to his name as a fudge, arguing that he remained a Zardari with no right to lead a party founded by the Bhutto family.

“You can’t just add a name. You can’t become a Bhutto overnight,” he told The Times.

Casting doubts over the authenticity of Benazir’s will, he said: “It’s very suspect. Suddenly, a will has come into existence that nobody has seen before.”

Mr. Bhutto (74), who fell out with Benazir’s father and was expelled from the party, said that the PPP’s leadership should have gone to either Benazir’s younger sister, Sanam, who lives in London, or to one of the two children of her brother Murtaza, who was killed in a police shoot-out when she was Prime Minister. The Independent quoted him as saying that the PPP came into “existence on the name and the sweat and blood of the Bhutto family” and, therefore, its leadership should have gone to Ms. Sanam, or to Murtaza’s son or daughter.

“The Zardaris have made no sacrifices for the party whereas the Bhutto family have made big sacrifices. The Zardaris have just profited from it,” he said. In a personal attack on Benazir’s husband Asif Ali Zardari, Mr. Bhutto called him an “illiterate” man with no political background. “This [the succession issue] will split the party. He has no political background or acumen. I think this will lead to break-up. Total disintegration,” he warned.

The PPP dismissed his comments as those of a political has-been, speaking out of “spite and frustration”.

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