One year since Benazir Bhutto’s death, the frenzied grief that propelled her husband to the presidency is replaced by uncertainty and a creeping radicalisation. Andrew Buncombe and Omar Waraich report in the Independent:
On the first anniversary of Benazir Bhutto's death, Pakistanis light earthen lamps at the Bhutto family mausoleum in rural Sindh province. AFP
When the assassin struck, Asif Ali Zardari was a thousand miles away. As his wife, Benazir Bhutto, was fatally attacked at an election rally in Rawalpindi a year ago today, Mr Zardari was at one of the family homes in Dubai, out of sight and out of the political plans of the woman who was seeking her third term as Pakistan’s prime minister.
That chaotic, frenzied night – as he and the couple’s son, Bilawal, flew back to Pakistan to take charge of both the funeral arrangements of Ms Bhutto and the reins of her party – fate and the explicit wishes of his wife were conspiring to push him centre-stage in the country’s political arena.
A year on, the man who was once derided as “Mr 10 Per Cent” for his alleged corruption, is not simply head of his wife’s Pakistan People’s Party but President of the whole country. After the party won the greatest number of seats in February’s election and formed the government, Mr Zardari and the PPP then moved against President Pervez Musharraf. Confronted by possible impeachment, the former army boss eventually stood down to be replaced by Mr Zardari.
Benazir mourners lament Pakistan’s gathering gloom
A year after Ms Bhutto’s assassination, many believe that the country is fast becoming a failed state. Jeremy Page frm Rawalpindi in the Times:
They came by foot, bicycle, train, car and bus. Thousands of mourners gathered at the Bhutto family mausoleum to mark today’s first anniversary of the assassination of Benazir Bhutto, Pakistan’s former Prime Minister.
Her son, Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, and widower Asif Ali Zardari, who swept to power as President after her death, will lead the nation on a day of public mourning.
For many Pakistanis the commemorations are a chance to mourn not just the death of one of their most charismatic politicians but also their country’s subsequent descent into ever deeper political and economic chaos.
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