Bhuttos and Gandhis: Common Chord, Common Curse

10

As another Bhutto dies a violent death- the comparisons between that tragic dynasty in Pakistan and our own Gandhis have become the cliché with the most currency. I succumb too, because the similiarities are just incredible. Both Rajiv Gandhi and Benazir Bhutto had a parent who was a Prime Minister- a Pakistani friend pointed out to me in fact that Indira Gandhi was killed by her bodyguards, and Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto was sent to the gallows by the man who was in a manner of speaking was, as Army Chief, in charge of his protection. The death of both Indira and Zulfiqar didn't just change their children's lives, they changed the course of their countries' destiny. Like Benazir, Rajiv Gandhi died in a suicide bombing. Like her son Bilawal, Rajiv's son Rahul was just about twenty, just beginning an undergraduate college degree abroad. Rajiv lost his brother in an aircrash....

A Rivalry Cut Short

28

It's a visit filled with so many ironies. The visit by Nawaz Sharif to the grave of Benazir Bhutto. A visit by the leader of one of Pakistan's biggest parties the PML-N the stronghold of the leader of its biggest, the PPP. A visit by one former Prime Minister of Pakistan to pay his respects to another former Prime Minister, the pair of them taking turns to rule the country for nearly a decade. No surprise then that Nawaz Sharif hasn't been to Larkana much. It's Bibi's garh, the Bhutto home, and rivals wouldn't enter, certainly not without her word - and Sharif's convoy is greeted only by the chant Jiye Bhutto. But Bibi isn't there any more - and by the end her relationship with Sharif had mellowed to the point she would have welcomed him here. Nawaz....