| GEO Pakistan | | Fatima hails reduction in powers of Zardari | Updated at: 0714 PST, Sunday, April 04, 2010
 NEW DELHI: Hailing moves in Pakistan that may lead to reduction in the power of President Asif Ali Zardari, Fatima Bhutto, niece of slain former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, said there should not be two different laws for the powerful and the common citizens.
"We are yet to see the law passed. It is important that now we are talking about it but in the first place I don't think or believe that Presidents or those in power should be granted immunity.
"There should not be a law for the powerful and a law for the ordinary citizens. In fact those in power should be scrutinized even more closely and more severely than ordinary citizens," Fatima, who is here for the launch of her book 'Songs of Blood and Sword' said.
The 28-year-old writer-journalist is the daughter of slain political leader Murtaza Bhutto and niece of Pinky Aunty, Benazir Bhutto. “You didn’t know she was called Pinky? I called her Wadi and we used to read books together,” she says. This was before 1996, before her father was shot dead two days after his 42nd birthday.
Songs of Blood and Sword (Penguin, Rs 695) was launched in Karachi on March 31st before Fatima left for Delhi and she does not know if Benazir’s family has read the book.
“I don’t think they’ll read it. We launched the book at the park where my father was killed. 700 people showed up and I am thankful for such a great show of solidarity in a time when the situation in Pakistan is so difficult,” says Fatima.
The decision to write the book had come a great deal earlier, in 2004. “I felt like a private detective going through boxes, letters, diaries that my father and other family members kept.
A year later, I began e-mailing and speaking to people who knew him well and would talk to me about my father,” says Fatima. “There is a tendency in South Asia to either idolise or demonise our political leaders. My grandfather and father made mistakes and it was part of their journey. I didn’t want to write a hagiographic book,” she says. |  |
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