Bhuttos: The Gandhis of Pakistan

Wali Ahmad
Thursday, December 27, 2007 (New Delhi)
The assassination of former Pakistan Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto draws a bloody parallel with the Gandhi family of India. The Bhutto clan across the border and the Gandhis in India -- arguably the most important political lineages in their respective countries -- have lost generations violently to political vendetta and religious fanaticism. The two families have also been deeply associated with each other in Indo-Pak relations. A young Benazir was famously by her father Zulfequar Ali Bhutto's side when he signed the Simla agreement with Indira Gandhi in 1972. Seven years later, Zulfequar Bhutto was sent to the gallows by General Zia-ul Haq on April 4, 1979. He was hanged despite international appeal for clemency.In India five years later, then prime minister Indira Gandhi was killed in 1984 by her own bodyguards. Her son and political novice Rajiv Gandhi stepped into her shoes, coming to power after a huge victory in the elections held after his mother's assassination. Benazir Bhutto first became Pakistan's Prime Minister in 1988. She had a lot in common with the equally charismatic Rajiv across the border. Both were educated abroad, in England in fact, were articulate and impressed the world as leaders at a young age. In 1991, Rajiv was assassinated in Tamil Nadu by a suicide bomber during an election campaign. Another violent death in a family already rocked by the death of his younger brother Sanjay Gandhi in 1980 in a plane crash. Benazir lost brother Murtaza to a police encounter in 1996 and another brother Shahnawaz under mysterious circumstances a decade before.On Thursday, Bhutto too was killed by a suicide bomber while campaigning for elections.The assassination of Bhutto draws the curtains down to the two families on either side of the border.