Zeenews Bureau
Islamabad, Dec 28: Asif Zardari, the slain Pakistani leader Benazir Bhutto’s husband, has said that Benazir left her dying declaration which has been published in America. He said that she has left her will and now we have to follow it.
Zardari, visibly emotional and shaken, said that Benazir had come to save Pakistan and was cruelly murdered. Zardari did not hit at Musharraf directly, but his statements hinted at Musharraf being responsible for his wife’s assassination. He said that one cannot ignore what Benazir herself thought about the possible threat to her life. He further said that those who had attacked her earlier were the ones behind her assassination. It is to be noted that Benazir had blamed Musharraf for not being able to provide for protection.
On being asked whether he would be her possible successor, Zardari said that this was not the time to think about it and we should follow what Benazir’s will says.
Bhutto spoke to her children hours before dying
Hours before she was assassinated Benazir Bhutto spoke to her three children over phone.
Though she was busy with her election campaign in Punjab province throughout Thursday morning, she took out time to speak to her children Bakhtawar (19), Bilawal (17) and Asifa (14).
"There were meetings going on but she spoke to her children as she normally did whenever she was away from home," a close aide of Bhutto told The Post .
Bhutto spoke at length to her youngest daughter Asifa, the aide said.
Like all mothers, Bhutto doted on her children but also fiercely guarded their privacy. She even put off her return to Pakistan for some years, saying her children needed their mother.
"I love to cook for my children. Although my husband does not like my cooking," she said in one of her last interviews.
Two weeks after the October 18 blasts, Bhutto left for Dubai to see her children and ailing mother, but returned home almost immediately after President Pervez Musharraf declared a state of Emergency in Pakistan on November 3.
"My children had heard about the (Karachi) bomb blast through their friends and they were worried. I could not immediately visit them then, so I promised to pay them a visit later," she had said about that visit to Dubai.
First Published: Friday, December 28, 2007, 00:00