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The Bhutto family tragedy explained

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Benazir Bhutto's death is the latest disaster in a family history rife with feuds, fall-outs, violent death and tragedy...

Zufikar Ali Bhutto with his wife and four children, including Benazir, top right, in July 1978

*Benazir Bhutto's father, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, was dismissed as Pakistan Prime Minister in 1975 and executed by hanging for conspiracy to murder a political opponent in 1979.

*Ms Bhutto wrested control of the PPP from her mother, Begum Nusrat Bhutto, while her two younger brothers, Shahnawaz and Murtaza, set up a militant group called al-Zulfikar, which orchestrated a string of bombings in Pakistan. They were both killed in 1985 and 1996 respectively.

*Shahnawaz, 28, was found dead in his apartment while in exile on the French Riviera. His family insisted he had been poisoned.

*Murtaza set up a breakaway faction of the PPP after he accused Bhutto of straying from their father's ideology. He was killed in a shootout with the Pakistani police.

 

*Although she and Murtaza were political rivals, on the night her brother died, Ms Bhutto ran to the hospital barefoot and wept over his bloodied corpse in the morgue for 45 minutes.

*Murtaza's Syrian widow, Ghinwa Bhutto, is the chairperson of her own faction of the PPP. She is estranged from her Bhutto in-laws and lives in Karachi with her son, Zulfikar Bhutto Jr, and her stepdaughter, Fatima Bhutto.

*Fatima, 25, is a columnist for The News in Pakistan and one of Ms Bhutto's harshest critics. She called the ordinance signed by Musharraf that quashed the corruption case against Ms Bhutto "the greatest judicial subversion that our country has seen in a long time".

*Fatima also blames Ms Bhutto for her father's death. Ms Bhutto's husband, Asif Ali Zardari, was arrested on suspicion of his murder in 1996. Although he was soon cleared, he remained in police custody for the next eight years on charges ranging from corruption to murder.

*Arguably the most hated man in Pakistan, Mr Zardari was accussed of amassing millions of pounds through corruption and kickbacks. Rumours of a £2.5 million Surrey mansion stocked with furniture and antiques sent by Mr Zardari from Karachi in crates labelled 'mangoes' were widely reported in the Pakistani media.

*At the head of the 700,000-strong Bhutto clan is Ms Bhutto's uncle, Mumtaz Bhutto. He refused to support Ms Bhutto on her return to Pakistan this year, saying she had betrayed the family name with her negotiations with Musharraf.

 


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