'Benazir fourth victim of senseless killing in family'

ISLAMABAD: Describing Benazir Bhutto as a "victim of senseless killing", her niece Fatima, who shared a love-hate relationship with the former Premier, says she is yet to see someone dying of natural causes in the family.
   
Fatima, who called Bhutto "Wadi Bua", a Sindhi term for a father's elder sister, said "I am in shock because I have yet to bury a loved one who has died from natural causes. Four, that's the number of family members, immediate family members, whom we have laid to rest, all victims of senseless, senseless killing.
   
"I was born five years after my grandfather, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto's assassination... I was three when my uncle Shahnawaz was murdered. I remember 'Wadi Bua' sitting with me and telling me stories while the rest of the family was with the police ... when I was 14, my life was ended. I lost my heart and soul, my father Murtaza," Fatima, who is often compared to Bhutto, wrote in 'The News'.
    
"And now at 25 'Wadi'. But this isn't about me, it's about those whom we have lost. It's about the graveyard at Garhi Khuda Buksh that is just too full," she wrote.
    
Fatima had recently authored another article on Bhutto - 'Aunt Benazir's False Promises' -- in which she called her a "twice-disgraced former prime minister" who was "hashing out a deal to share power with General Pervez Musharraf".

Fatima admitted, "My aunt and I had a complicated relationship. That is the truth, the sad truth. The last 15 years were not ones we spent as friends or as relatives that is also the truth.
    
"We were very different. Though people liked to compare us almost instinctively because they could. It is difficult for me to write about two people, one in the present tense and one in the past, at the same time.
     
"I never agreed with her politics. I never did. I never agreed with those she kept around her, the political opportunists, hanger-ons, them. I repulse them," wrote Fatima, who has authored two books.
    
Stating this was the most difficult article she has had to author, Fatima recalled, "We used to read children's books together. We used to like exactly the same sweets - sugared chestnuts and candied apples. We used to get the same ear infections, ear infections that tortured us and plagued us throughout the years.
   
"But this week, I too want to remember her differently. I want to remember her differently because I must. I can't lose faith in this country, my home. I can't believe that it was for nothing, that violence in its purest form is so cruel and so unforgiving. I can't accept that this is what we have come to. So, I must offer a farewell.
   
"I pray that this is the last, that from this moment onwards we will no longer have to bid farewell too quickly... 'Wadi', farewell," she said.