Benazir knew she would be murdered: Sister

ISLAMABAD: Slain former Pakistani premier Benazir Bhutto had a premonition that she would be murdered and had said her farewells to her near and dear ones, her sister has revealed.

Benazir's younger sister Sanam, who declined to take on the leadership of the Pakistan People's Party after the two-time prime minister was assassinated last month, said, "Towards the end she had this soft look and sadness in her eyes. I can't explain it: it was just this different look."

"She was very nice to everyone, very considerate. Although she was going through normal stress, she thought about each one of us. It was as if she knew she was saying goodbye," Sanam was quoted as having told her journalist friend Daphne Barak by the Telegraph newspaper.

"She even bought a present for my daughter, and instead of giving her money she gave her a very special necklace," said Sanam, who lives in London with her two children.

Sanam was also quoted by the newspaper as vouching rather indirectly for Benazir's controversial will in which she bequeathed the PPP to her husband Asif Ali Zardari. Sanam said her sister wrote the will shortly before she returned to Pakistan from exile on October 18 last year.

"Two days before she left for Pakistan, she wrote a 17-page will," said Sanam, the only surviving child of the late PPP founder Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto.

Sanam also revealed that she is organising a British tribute for Benazir.