{"id":76548,"date":"2023-04-05T17:24:35","date_gmt":"2023-04-05T17:24:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pppp.org.pk\/website\/?page_id=76548"},"modified":"2023-04-05T17:24:35","modified_gmt":"2023-04-05T17:24:35","slug":"destinys-daughter","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/pppp.org.pk\/website\/destinys-daughter\/","title":{"rendered":"Destiny\u2019s Daughter"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Destiny\u2019s Daughter
\n<\/span>From\u00a0<\/span>The Times –\u00a0<\/span>April 28, 2007<\/span>
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Benazir Bhutto\u2019s life has been a rollercoaster of high political drama, acute personal loss, early triumph followed by downfall and charges of corruption. Ginny Dougary meets her in exile in Dubai, as she plans her return to power in Pakistan<\/span><\/h2>\n
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The story of Benazir Bhutto is dramatic enough on paper but becomes almost fantastic in person. Her pampered-princess start in life, raised at her father\u2019s knee in the ancestral estate on heady tales of the Bhutto family\u2019s political dynasty; her education at Harvard and Oxford, where she was president of the Oxford Union; her heartbreaking return to Pakistan when she was unable to save her beloved father \u2013 despite intense international pressure \u2013 from being hanged in 1979 by General Zia\u2019s military dictatorship, whose coup had toppled Zulfikar Ali Bhutto\u2019s democratic government. Her subsequent years of solitary confinement, as the new leader of the Pakistan People\u2019s Party (the mantle passed on to her by Bhutto Sr, who founded the socialist party in 1967), in the squalid, inhumane conditions she had last seen her father calmly endure; the isolation of house arrest with virtually no visits or phone calls; her escape to Britain in 1984, campaigning in exile against the injustices of the Zia regime, and triumphant return to Pakistan two years later, where she was greeted by a staggering one million supporters and elected prime minister at the age of 35, in 1988, the youngest person and first woman to hold that position in any modern Muslim nation.<\/p>\n

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Within two years, her government was controversially dismissed by the military-backed president and an election called, in which the PPP (in a democratic alliance) was defeated. In 1993, she was re-elected, only to be dismissed once again three years later by another president on the grounds of mismanagement and corruption. Since 1999, Bhutto has been in exile in London and, latterly, Dubai, where she was reunited with her colourful husband, Asif Ali Zardari, who was released from prison in Pakistan in November 2004, having spent eight years awaiting trial on corruption and murder charges.<\/p>\n

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Two years earlier, the present president, General Pervez Musharraf, who continues to remain head of the military \u2013 seemingly impervious to widespread public criticism of his dual role \u2013 introduced a new amendment to Pakistan\u2019s constitution, banning prime ministers from holding office for more than two terms. This should disqualify Bhutto from ever resuming that position and also her old rival, Nawaz Sharif. But in Pakistan, anything can happen, and Bhutto is planning to return to her country \u2013 regardless of the numerous corruption charges which she and her family still face (as well as the couple\u2019s separate, ongoing money-laundering case in Switzerland) \u2013 to fight the allegedly free and democratic elections which have been promised by the end of this year. As she says, her own life has mirrored the history of Pakistan and that is why, at such a pivotal time in the West, it is both fascinating and important to hear what Benazir Bhutto has to say.<\/p>\n

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The four hours spent in her home in Dubai are a rollercoaster of copious laughter and floods of tears, noncommittal cautiousness and breathtaking openness, plain-speaking to the point of impertinence and insinuating charm, high-handed loftiness and affectionate intimacy. Bhutto is the most extraordinary woman who says the most extraordinary things, veering wildly between self-aggrandisement and a knowing, sometimes humorous, recognition of how she can come across.<\/p>\n

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Although she declines to name names \u2013 saying that \u201cit\u2019s better not to give the impression that you\u2019re trying to fire political shots over somebody else\u2019s shoulder\u201d \u2013 it is clear that there have been high-level discussions behind the scenes in Washington, where Bhutto is frequently invited to give speeches, and perhaps the UK. There continues to be widespread speculation in the press about the possibility of a deal being struck between Musharraf\u2019s \u201cpeople\u201d and Bhutto\u2019s party. Her response to these reports is that although \u201cthere have been \u2018back-channel\u2019 contacts with Musharraf for some time, they have not led to any understanding. And so all this talk of an \u2018understanding\u2019 I find very confusing.\u201d It is also confusing that while Bhutto does not shirk from criticising Musharraf at every opportunity, she also makes it clear in this interview that she would be prepared to work alongside him as long as certain conditions were met.<\/p>\n

In her riveting autobiography Daughter of the East, published in 1988 and recently reissued with a new preface and conclusion, she tells us that her father advised her never to lay all her cards on the table. Although there may have been a time when she found it difficult to stick to his advice \u2013 \u201cI always lay my cards on the table\u201d she maintained \u2013 I certainly find it difficult to pin her down on her current political agenda. It requires an exhausting degree of Paxmanesque persistence, repeatedly asking the same question, to elicit this response on the possibility of a Musharraf-Bhutto alliance: \u201cYou have asked me an important question and I want to give you my answer, since my followers will read this and they haven\u2019t heard me speak like this before,\u201d Bhutto finally allows. \u201cFirstly, I plan to go back to Pakistan by the end of this year whether Mr Musharraf would like it or whether he would not like it. And I believe that the [corruption] cases must all be dropped, which categorically has not happened. Not one single case has been dropped and you will please note that between my mother, my father-in-law and myself there are about 20 charges or more. And what I feel and my party feels is that for more than a decade these charges have been used to hobble the opposition? to undermine my leadership and the PPP, and they should be dropped because none of them has been proven, and if they\u2019re not dropped then it creates an unbalance as we enter the elections of 2007. And we feel outraged that government funds have been used on a politically motivated investigation that has borne no fruit over ten years.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut I also believe there are other important issues for the people of Pakistan to consider, which is would Musharraf continue to keep his uniform? And would there be a balance of power between the president and the prime minister, because at the moment we have shadow-boxing, where the prime minister is technically the head of the government but the substantive decisions are taken by the presidency or the military.\u201d The current state of play, she goes on to say, is that General Musharraf\u2019s ruling party has said that \u201cthey can rig the election so there\u2019s no need for free elections or a future parliament headed by the PPP? Which is why it\u2019s premature to talk about working alongside General Musharraf at this stage, although in the past we have worked jointly on certain issues such as the Women\u2019s Bill.<\/p>\n

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\u201cAt the same time, I want you to know that we are also partners with Mr Nawaz Sharif [in exile after he was deposed by Musharraf\u2019s military coup] in something called the charter for the restoration of democracy, so we are talking about a new democratic process in which the people of Pakistan are allowed to choose their leader and put together a coalition. And for that we are calling for a robust international monitoring team to ensure that these elections are fair and free because obviously if they\u2019re not, the ruling party will still be in the driver\u2019s seat and the creeping Talebanisation of Pakistan will continue.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Bhutto does not rule out the possibility that she might become prime minister again: \u201cIf the people vote for my party [she remains chairperson of the PPP, which received the highest number of votes in the last parliamentary election in 2002] and parliament elects me as prime minister, it would be an honour for me to take up that role and General Musharraf would be there as president, so I think that a good working relationship between him and me would be a necessity for Pakistan.\u201d What a pragmatist she must be. \u201cYes, I would have the choice of either respecting the will of the people and making it a success or being short-sighted and putting my personal feelings about past events ahead of the national interest, and what I want more than anything is for Pakistan to prosper as we make a transition to democracy,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

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I put a number of questions to Senator Tariq Azim Khan, the Federal Minister of State for Information and Broadcasting, to establish the Pakistan Government\u2019s position. He was affable and helpful on the telephone and sent me his answers, as requested, in writing. Yes, he wrote, there are a number of cases still pending in various courts in Pakistan against Ms Bhutto and her husband, Mr Zadari \u2013 and these cases (almost all 10 to 11 years old) have not been dropped. No, it is highly unlikely that she will be arrested upon arrival in Pakistan. She will nevertheless have to apply for bail in the cases where she has been convicted while abroad. And, lastly, for Ms Bhutto to become the prime minister for the third time, the constitution will have to be amended and this will require a two-thirds majority in parliament.<\/p>\n

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Pakistan has been ruled by the military for so many years since it came into being in 1947, that I wonder whether democracy will ever have a chance to flourish. \u201cDemocracy can work in Pakistan if the West stops upholding military dictatorships through their financial and political support,\u201d Bhutto says. \u201cOur tragedy has been that the military has been able to exploit the West\u2019s strategic interest in Afghanistan for almost two decades.\u201d And you and your party would like that support? \u201cOf course, we need that economic assistance and diplomatic support and we didn\u2019t have it.\u201d Do you think there is any likelihood of you ever getting it? \u201cPakistan is a critical country,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

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Musharraf is undeniably under siege at the moment, which has grave implications beyond his own country. There have been violent protests against his dismissal of Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry on the flimsiest of grounds, provoking fears that the government is attempting to muzzle the independence of the judiciary, and newspapers such as Dawn \u2013 set up by the lawyer and founding father of Pakistan, Muhammad Ali Jinnah \u2013 have been alerting the international media community about unacceptable levels of government control.<\/p>\n

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Meanwhile in the same capital, ostensibly the very stronghold of government power, we witness the strange spectacle of stick-waving, burkha-clad schoolgirls \u2013 like a fundamentalist version of St Trinian\u2019s \u2013 kidnapping suspected brothel-keeping madames (an elderly woman, her daughter, daughter-in-law and six-month-old granddaughter), and then the police officers themselves who came to release the captives. But the more one reads about this incident, the more alarming it becomes. In Feburary, 3,000 of these female students from the hardline Jamia Hafsa madrassa connected to the Lal Masjid mosque, occupied the only children\u2019s library in Islamabad, where they remain, saying that any action to remove them will be met with violence. The black-shrouded girls have also been seen in the company of male students carrying Kalashnikov rifles. During their protests, the students chant the names of Osama bin Laden and Mullah Omar, the Taleban leader.<\/p>\n

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The headquarters of Pakistan\u2019s intelligence security agency \u2013 the ISI \u2013 are close to the mosque and it has been reported that several of its members are regulars there. Some believe that there are rogue elements within the agency who have strong ties with al-Qaeda and the Taleban. Ever since Musharraf chose to back America\u2019s War on Terror, there have been calls in the mosque for his death.<\/p>\n

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Even to those of us in the West who are not nuanced in the labyrinthine historical intricacies of the politics of Pakistan, there is a growing concern that what happens so many miles away has the potential to make a devastating impact on our own lives. Dutiful English-born boys, often from blameless Muslim families, continue to travel to Pakistan \u2013 some already radicalised but not all \u2013 to one or other madrassas, emerging from those religious schools with a hatred of their parents\u2019 adopted country, and we are all too aware of where that can lead.<\/p>\n

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It was my understanding that Musharraf\u2019s inability to control the Taleban-controlled Waziristan \u2013 on the Pakistan border of Afghanistan \u2013 was an inevitable source of disquiet for his American backers and likely to make them at the very least question his leadership qualities. Benazir Bhutto\u2019s response to a recent treaty which had been negotiated was: \u201cMy party would not have allowed the Taleban to become such a huge force that they would need to sign a peace treaty.\u201d What the West wants to avoid at all costs is the possibility of the fundamentalists seizing power. And according to Bhutto, who is, of course, hardly an impartial observer, Musharraf, far from being weak, is strategically catering to the extremists in order to convince the US that unless they continue to back him their worst fears will be realised. Does Bhutto know whether Musharraf is anxious about losing US backing? \u201cThe indications are that he is confident that he has the support of the White House and that because of the situation arising with Iran\u2019s stand-off with the West he feels that he will continue to be a key ally,\u201d she says. \u201cIn fact, as far as General Musharraf is concerned, I think he feels that he\u2019s got the West in his hands.\u201d A provocative remark fully intended, one feels, to pack a well-aimed punch.<\/p>\n

Bhutto believes that the PPP is feared by the current powers that be because \u201cmy party has a modern agenda, speaks for the ordinary Pakistanis and has grass-roots support,\u201d she says. \u201cAnd they dislike me because I\u2019m a woman and because my father was Zulfikar Ali Bhutto. And they have a hatred for the Bhutto family, stemming from the fact that my father was able to defeat them in the elections \u2013 and the only political party that has defeated this army slate or generals\u2019 slate in my father\u2019s time and my time has been the PPP.\u201d<\/p>\n

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When she was first elected in 1988, there wasn\u2019t an awareness of what was really happening in the madrassas \u2013 \u201cBut by the time I became prime minister for the second time in 1993, Pakistan was on the brink of being declared a terrorist state and my government worked very closely with the international community to reform the madrassas and restore law and order.\u201d None of this was painless, she says, \u201cthere was bloodshed in the streets of Karachi [which was flooded with Afghan refugees in the Eighties and Nineties, and there were terrible scenes of political and sectarian violence] and I can\u2019t tell you how awful it was getting daily reports of 30 people killed and 20 people killed, but I ended the army operation there after one year, and in the second year the raids went down and I remember how happy I was when I got my first report of \u2018zero deaths\u2019. These militant terrorists hold whole cities and towns and villages hostage, and it\u2019s not easy confronting them.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Bhutto represents everything the fundamentalists hate \u2013 a powerful, highly-educated woman operating in a man\u2019s world, seemingly unafraid to voice her independent views and, indeed, seemingly unafraid of anything, including the very real possibility that one day someone might succeed in killing her because of who she is. Her father brought her up to believe in their Islamic faith\u2019s certainty that life and death are in God\u2019s hands. Perhaps it is also her sense of destiny \u2013 the daughter, rather than her brothers, groomed from such an early age to be the political heir to her father, despite her initial reluctance \u2013 which explains her equanimity in the face of death. \u201cMy father always would say, \u2018My daughter will go into politics? My daughter will become prime minister\u2019, but it\u2019s not what I wanted to do. I would say, \u2018No, Papa, I will never go into politics.\u2019 As I\u2019ve said before, this is not the life I chose; it chose me,\u201d she says. \u201cBut I accepted the responsibility and I\u2019ve never wavered in my commitment.\u201d Does this unshakable certainty make it easier for her to accept whatever happens to her? \u201cYes, in a way, because I don\u2019t fear death. I remember my last meeting with my father when he told me, \u2018You know, tonight when I will be killed, my mother and my father will be waiting for me.\u2019 It makes me weepy,\u201d she says, as her eyes fill up, \u201cbut I don\u2019t think it can happen unless God wants it to happen because so many people have tried to kill me.<\/p>\n

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\u201cLet me tell you, the World Trade Center was attacked twice, although most people only remember the second one. But the first time, in 1993, it was Ramzi Yousef and the second attack was by [his uncle] Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, who has confessed and is in American custody, and both these men tried to kill me and failed. So they succeeded with the World Trade towers but they didn\u2019t succeed with me.\u201d This is quite a bravura statement, despite its matter-of-fact delivery. But then she does have an occasional tendency to express herself in hyperbolic terms, which makes her sound rather grandiose. In the new preface of her autobiography, she compares herself \u2013 in the context of her drawn-out reluctance to get married \u2013 to Elizabeth I, \u201cwho had also endured imprisonment and remained single\u201d.<\/p>\n

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When we discuss her initiative to privatise the public sector in Pakistan, inspired by Margaret Thatcher\u2019s policies (an unusual role model for a socialist, particularly one whose father introduced nationalisation to his country), she makes a point of saying: \u201cVery few people realise that it was my government [in 1988-90] that was the catalyst for the privatisation of South Asia? And now when you look at socialism, it is redefined even in the Scandinavian countries and in England. But I redefined socialism. I was simply doing what other socialists were going to do \u2013 and ten years before Tony Blair.\u201d<\/p>\n

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At one point, I try unsuccessfully to draw Bhutto out on her social life at Harvard and Oxford, where she cut such a glamorous figure in her racy yellow sports car, and she explains why this whole area is so difficult for her to discuss: \u201cWhen I returned to Pakistan, I was held on a pedestal. I was neither man nor woman. I was regarded as a saint.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bhutto may be to some a somewhat tarnished saint by now, her reputation sullied by the corruption charges, of which the most damaging is the ongoing court case in Switzerland, (\u201cOh, they\u2019ve gone on endlessly,\u201d she sighs), regardless of the eventual outcome. But she is still a force to be reckoned with, as witnessed by the febrile speculation over her comeback. She maintains that had her government remained in power, most of the world\u2019s terrorist tragedies would not have occurred \u2013 since the trail so often leads back to Pakistan.<\/p>\n

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\u201cI really do think that there is at least some degree of causality that most major terrorist attacks took place when the extremists did not have to deal with a democratic Pakistani government, when they operated without check and oversight,\u201d she writes in the new conclusion to her book. \u201cI believe that if my government had not been destabilised in Pakistan in 1996, the Taleban could not have allowed Osama bin Laden to set up base in Afghanistan, openly recruit and train young men from all over the Muslim world and declare war on America in 1998.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Bhutto knows that in returning to her homeland, she may be arrested or killed the moment she steps off the plane. This is why she is still careful not to discuss her travel arrangements: \u201cI feel very jittery even if my best friend asks me when I\u2019m leaving? I think the threat very much remains because my politics can disturb not only the military dictatorship in Pakistan, but it has a fall-out on al-Qaeda and a fall-out on the Taleban.\u201d Do all these thwarted attempts on her life make Bhutto feel weirdly immortal? \u201cNo,\u201d she says. \u201cI know death comes. I\u2019ve seen too much death, young death. My young brothers I have buried and my security guard who was like a brother to me was brutally gunned down, two years ago. I\u2019ve been to the homes of people who have been hanged and people who were shot in the street so, no, I don\u2019t feel that there\u2019s anything like immortality.\u201d<\/p>\n

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As we sit in Bhutto\u2019s study talking about death and torture and mayhem, servants come and go bearing cups of green tea fragrant with cardamom. She is dressed up for the photographs in a dazzling emerald-green shalwar kameez, with matching power-shouldered blazer, and her hair is free of the white headscarf she dons in public. When I ask her whether she has expensive jewellery on, she laughs prettily: \u201cYes, I do. I confess.\u201d There are sapphires and pearl rings, all presents from her husband, as well as a socking great man\u2019s watch \u2013 \u201cI like big watches? All the better to see you with, my dear\u201d \u2013 the face packed with oversize diamonds. The cheapest ring, a simple metal band, was a gift from a follower intended to ward off evil omens.<\/p>\n

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Her mother, Nusrat, marooned in her lonely descent into Alzheimer\u2019s, is somewhere in the house; the only sign of her existence is an empty wheelchair behind the sweeping staircase. Bhutto mentions her often, and it is clear that this once stunning Iranian beauty has left as much of an imprint on her daughter as the father. Over lunch \u2013 I am served curry while our hostess abstemiously sticks to broth and tinned tuna \u2013 Bhutto surprisingly tells me that she is envious of the way I have let myself go. \u201cMy mother was always telling me that if I ever got fat, my husband would leave me for a younger woman,\u201d she says. A Pakistani friend of mine told me that in her country, this direct way of speaking is considered quite normal among upper-class society women and is not meant unkindly.<\/p>\n

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When she was a little girl, Bhutto\u2019s father used to say: \u201cWell, if Nehru\u2019s daughter can become prime minister of India, my daughter can become prime minister of Pakistan.\u201d He was always telling her about women leaders, and that was where her radicalisation began: \u201cOf course, I come from a region that has produced women leaders, and so he would talk to me about Indira Gandhi and Mrs Bandaranaike of Sri Lanka, Golda Meir and also Joan of Arc.\u201d These were remote figures for her as a girl and it was Margaret Thatcher\u2019s rise to power, which Bhutto was in England to witness, that really inspired her.<\/p>\n

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At Harvard, she joined the protests against the Vietnam War and read all the feminist bibles: \u201cI was certainly emboldened by their writing because at that time at college there was still a debate between those women who wanted to get married and those of us who wanted to have careers.\u201d When I ask her whether she calls herself a feminist, she looks uncomfortable: \u201cI consider myself a defender of women\u2019s rights, yes.\u201d You don\u2019t like the label? \u201cWell, feminist has connotations of people burning their \u2013 ah \u2013 underwear in the streets.\u201d So did you burn your bra? \u201cNo, I never did,\u201d she smiles, \u201cand that [bra] is another inappropriate word not used by good Muslim women!\u201d It is at times like this that you catch a glimpse of what fun Bhutto can be, when she goes \u201coff-message\u201d and is distracted from the pressing concerns of her political future. She says that some of the best years of her life were at university: \u201cBecause I was free and in a different culture and the shops had all nice things and it was a different world, but that world ended when I returned to Pakistan in 1977.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Bhutto, like most people, is full of contradictions. For all her intelligence and determination, she definitely has her fragile side. You don\u2019t expect such a fierce spirit to quote Dale Carnegie as a fount of wisdom or to say that she reads self-help books \u201cto try to cope with stress and anxiety\u201d. In her library, the different categories denoted by hand-written paper stickers, four shelves are devoted to self-help, with titles such as Women Who Love Too Much, Self Help for Your Nerves, Secrets about Men that Every Woman Should Know and The Art of Being a Lady.<\/p>\n

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This last book could have been penned by her mother. While Benazir\u2019s father was preparing her to be a political leader, Nusrat was instructing her daughter on how to dress for success. \u201cShe was very strict about exercising and her weight, and was always telling us that we had to groom ourselves properly and be neat, tidy and smart,\u201d Bhutto says. She still remembers the time when she was 13 and her mother, speaking to her relatives in Persian, complained \u201c\u2018Oh, Benazir has got so fat\u2019 in such a disappointed way that I at once redoubled my efforts to get thin.\u201d But it was years later, when she was already being half-starved in prison, that she became anorexic.<\/p>\n

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Now that Bhutto is 53, she finds herself tempted to relax about her appearance, the grooming and the nails. It\u2019s not in her nature to worry about such things and she doesn\u2019t like it, but it\u2019s become a discipline \u2013 and she\u2019s always on one diet or another. She talks about food like an addict, with her love for Ben & Jerry\u2019s caramel fudge ice-cream, chocolate cake and meringues: \u201cI eat for comfort. If I want to reward myself, I eat. If I\u2019m unhappy, I eat. I love my food. It\u2019s the one thing that doesn\u2019t complain to me or nag me or cause me any immediate unhappiness.\u201d Sometimes she fantasises about what it would be like to have a different life: \u201cIt would be so nice to have the luxury just to laze. So nice not to have to always get up and get dressed for some occasion. Always having to move from here to there, where everything is scheduled and even having lunch with my kids on their Easter break has to be slotted in. Maybe one day…\u201d<\/p>\n

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It\u2019s hard to know what part Bhutto\u2019s husband would play in this fantasy life. I asked Benazir whether they were separated, as he has been living in New York since 2005, but she denies any rift, saying that he needs to be there for medical reasons (hypertension, diabetes, a heart attack) and she flies out to visit him at least once a month. In the past, Bhutto has conceded \u2013 and it has been put to her so very often \u2013 that her husband has been a political liability, with his nickname of Mr 10 Per Cent and his role as his wife\u2019s investment minister. But she also says that she is a human being as well as a politician and so, unlike Tessa Jowell, whatever the fall-out, she continues to stand by her man. Perhaps as a Muslim woman in the political spotlight, it is useful to have a husband in tow \u2013 however problematic he may be \u2013 but I catch a glimpse of genuine affection when she describes his arrival at their home in Dubai, after his last eight-year incarceration.<\/p>\n

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\u201cYou know, out of the 19 years that we have been married, he has spent 11\u00bd in prison,\u201d she says. \u201cAnd although we were all excited and the children had put out lights and balloons, I was obviously a little apprehensive about getting to know him again. It had been such a long period of time and life is all about shared experiences and I was wondering whether he was the same person I knew.?\u201d And?? I ask expectantly. \u201cAnd I was very happy to see that he came in with the same jaunty smile,\u201d she says, and for a moment she looks quite different, and almost youthful, with her flushed cheeks and bright expression.<\/p>\n

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Bhutto\u2019s mother was always trying to line her up with \u201cgood husband\u201d material, who would be dutiful and not cause her any problems. When she was finally ready to submit herself to an arranged marriage \u2013 as distinct from a forced marriage against the woman\u2019s will \u2013 what appealed to her about Zardari was that he seemed to be his own man, unafraid to stand up to her but confident enough in himself, presumably unusual in a Muslim man, to take a supporting role to his wife.<\/p>\n

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Was there ever a moment when she fell in love with her husband? \u201cWhat is falling in love and what is love? You know, I love my husband and he loves me,\u201d she says. \u201cI liked his humour and his looks. I liked the sense he gave me of protection and I Iiked the respect he gave me, OK?\u201d Her husband cut new ground, she says, because people weren\u2019t used to a male spouse or having to deal with spouses who had a life or personality or income of their own. There were difficulties at first and lots of heated discussions. \u201cHe never imagined that I was going to get elected as prime minister [particularly since she was pregnant with their first child, who was born days before his mother went on to win the elections] although he was about the only person who didn\u2019t,\u201d she says. \u201cHe found it very difficult to cope with initially? the adulation, the scrutiny, the phone surveillance and lack of privacy. Now he\u2019s got used to it.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Although the received opinion is that it is Benazir whose standing has been besmirched by her husband\u2019s perceived wheeler-dealing, it is also true that he has suffered because of her career. This may explain why she falls apart, quite shockingly, when she recalls the time that her husband was tortured in prison \u2013 his neck slit, his tongue cut \u2013 and almost killed. \u201cIt is so awful when in your own country you cannot get justice,\u201d she is gulping with grief. \u201cHe nearly died and only narrowly survived and I didn\u2019t know what to do to save his life.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

I find myself asking her, rather clinically, why she still gets so emotional. It seems odd, although not necessarily unappealing, that she isn\u2019t harder after everything she and her family have endured. \u201cWhat upsets me is that I almost lost my husband,\u201d she says, blowing her nose loudly. \u201cAnd also I was brought up to believe that human beings are good, which is why it shocks me to the core when I see human beings behaving badly.\u201d This is the self-help devotee speaking, rather than the tough political pragmatist. The man she calls her new partner in democracy, Nawaz Sharif, was prime minister when her husband was tortured and almost died, and was also responsible for initiating the corruption charges that the couple have been fighting ever since. And it was General Musharraf who Bhutto turned to then, to intercede on her husband\u2019s behalf.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Benazir is running late in her scheduled, slotted life. She goes to refresh her make-up for our photograph session, leaving me to chat to a group of men who have been waiting patiently to see her. They are all political exiles and Bhutto supporters \u2013 a doctor, a lawyer, an engineer and a property developer \u2013 and they are polite but nervous. I pass the time reading an interview in Newsweek with Ali Saleem, the son of a retired army officer, and a bisexual transvestite who has a weekly television chat show which is cult viewing in Pakistan. When Benazir reappears, her face now caked in chalky white foundation and a gash of lipstick, I point out the passage where Saleem says that he has modelled himself on her. She asks the serious, suited men whether they think this is a good thing, and it\u2019s hard to know whether she\u2019s being playful or not. It is a suitably bizarre ending to an unforgettable meeting. It was her father who chose to call his first-born daughter Benazir, which means \u201cwithout comparison\u201d. I think he would feel that she is living up to his name.<\/p>\n

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