Tunes of turbulence

She’s articulate, beautiful, young and surely has a point of view. Reason enough for people to connect with her. But if the world is noticing her, it is more likely because she answers to the surname Bhutto. She has publicly accused her aunt, the slain Prime Minister of Pakistan, the late Benazir Bhutto, of having blood on her hands, the blood of her father and the latter’s brother, Mir Murtaza Bhutto. She has harsh words for Asif Ali Zardari, the current President of Pakistan, whom she calls a “criminal”. That’s probably why she mentions in the just-released  Songs of Blood and Sword (Penguin Viking) that she is constantly under watch, so much so that she had to be really discrete while meeting a lot of people during her research for the book, which recalls her father’s assassination. Bhutto shares her views in a freewheeling chat with Sunday Herald:

Why did you decide to publish the book at this particular juncture?

I have been researching and talking to people for six years, and I started writing it two years ago because it occurred to me that the government that was coming to power was going to erase this history. And as it turned out, they all exonerated themselves. So I realised that now was the time to preserve history, otherwise we were going to lose it.

A constitutional amendment has been moved in your country to curtail the President’s powers. Do you think it is a move in the right direction?

They should never have been given the immunity in the first place. So this is like somebody breaks your leg, and then they express concern. Well, it should not have been broken in the first place. But again, I think we have to wait and see, because there is a big gap between what people say and what people do. Certainly, those in power have a different law than the ordinary citizens. They can get away with everything, though it should have been the converse. Those in power should be even more scrutinised as they are more accountable.

Do you think such repeated intrusions by the army into the democratic space has also impeded the growth of Pakistan’s democracy?

Democracy is a very loose word. If you see, Asif Ali Zardari became President the same way as Gen Musharraf became the President. They were both elected by their own Parliaments, not by the people. Whoever comes to power, democratic institutions are not strengthened. They put censorship laws, they make repressive laws, instead of removing them. And what really impedes democracy is that we don’t have a participatory system.

You have written about having to be careful while speaking to people during the research for this book. Do you think this is because you are a critic of the government or because you are a Bhutto?

I think in this government it’s because I am a Bhutto, because this is a government that has hijacked my family’s name. The government is in power only because of a name, not because of their public policy or commitment to public service. When Musharraf was in power, I was very critical of that government too, but it was a different scenario. In that case, the fact that I was a Bhutto didn’t really matter. I was probably just an irritant.

But have you ever thought of forcefully laying claim to the legacy of this name, by directly confronting them at a political level?

No, because I was born a Bhutto. I don’t have anything to prove. And at the end, if there is a legacy of the Bhuttos, it belongs to the people of the country, not to the family, not to just one person.

Does that mean you don’t ever plan to join active politics?

No. I am a writer. I am active in political causes but have no interest parliamentary politics.

What does the name Asif Ali Zardari mean to you?

Well, the man is a  criminal. Before he became President, he had four murder cases proceeding against him, involving the deaths of 11 people. Besides that, he had corruption cases against him in Switzerland, Spain, UK and in Pakistan.

And he was alleged to be the ‘Mr 10%’ too at one point of time...

Exactly, and corruption cases in Pakistan amounts to billions of dollars. So, that’s what most Pakistanis think of when they hear his name.

And in terms of the friction between my aunt (and me), you know there were those who benefited from her in power, those who benefited from her corruption. Those of us who live in Pakistan, we can see the effects of her corruption. In Larkana (the Bhutto hometown), the last things that were built — in terms of schools, colleges — were built in the 70s, during my grandfather’s time. It’s a town of four million people. It does not look like a place that had a Prime Minister after Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto. Benazir did nothing. The only thing she did was to build the family’s graveyard. But for living people, there are no houses, no roads, no schools.

Do you think your aunt was used by the people around her, or was she a willing partner?

I think she was a willing partner. You are the Prime Minister, how can you not know what
is happening under your watch. If you don’t know what’s happening under you, then you should resign.

Are the political parties in your country equipped enough to strengthen the democratic process?

Like in India, where you have Congress and BJP, we have PPP and PML (N) who are taking turns being in power. Since the parties in government receive billions of dollars through foreign aid, how would a small party compete with them? If you are a small, secular, provincial party, how do you compete with the PPP which has got 10 billion dollars from America? This funding process is very undemocratic. So if you really want to talk about democracy, these governments need to stop being funded. The more the number of parties, the better, because there should be representation for anyone, and everyone should be given a chance.

Did you ever think while writing this book that it would have been better had it been fiction?

Yes, absolutely. I wished all the time that I didn’t have to write this book. I mean, I wish none of these things had happened so that there wouldn’t have been a book to write. The violence especially is so brutal, it’s very difficult to accept that not only was it real but it continues.