Bhutto siblings open up about years in exile from Pakistan

By Rob Crilly

Benazir Bhutto’s three children describe growing up in Pakistan’s grandest political dynasty, their years overseas and a tearful return

The children of Benazir Bhutto have spoken together for the first time about their years in self-imposed exile, driven from their homeland by threats and court cases. Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, 25, has been anointed as the former prime minister’s political heir and has moved centre stage in recent weeks organising a major cultural festival. In an interview with Hello Pakistan to promote the event, he and his two sisters describe how they grew up longing to return to their homeland. Bakhtawar, 24, who has worked for a number of charities assisting flood and earthquake victims, said their mother juggled running the Pakistan People’s Party with bringing up three young children. “We always wanted to return back to Pakistan, my mother frequently spoke about returning home and we often reminisced about our memories of Bilawal House,” said the Edinburgh University graduate, referring to the family home in Karachi.

“Tragically, we came back for our mother’s funeral. It was not the sort of homecoming we had planned…” Mrs Bhutto was killed in a suicide attack as she left a campaign rally in 2007, weeks after she flew back into the country for the first time in almost nine years. Her return was possible only after corruption charges against her were dropped as part of a deal to restore democracy and usher Pervez Musharraf out of office. Her husband, Asif Ali Zardari, spent eight years in prison after being arrested in the late 1990s, years which weighed heavily on his young children as they grew up in Dubai. Aseefa, 21, said: “It was a very traumatic time for all three of us. I was only three years old when my father was imprisoned and it wasn’t until I was eleven when he was finally released. My childhood was quite bereft.” She was famously the first Pakistani baby to be vaccinated against polio after her mother launched a major immunisation drive in 1994 and has since become a national ambassador for the campaign. Senior diplomats wonder whether she might have more campaigning fire in her belly than her brother – roundly criticised for staying away during last year’s general election - and whether she might ultimately emerge as the keeper of the Bhutto political flame. In recent months, however, Bilawal has developed a higher profile, improving his Urdu and carving out an outspoken leftist position on tackling extremism and reforming the economy. He became the third generation to run the family party when his mother died, just as she had inherited the post when her father was hanged after a military coup. “I never planned to be doing this,” he said. “Like my mother, this crown of thorns was entrusted to me at a very young age. I see it as both an honour and an opportunity.”