Goodbye Shahzadi - the controversial book

Raza Rumi

We are posting two reviews of the new book on Benazir Bhutto authored by Shyam Bhatia. The first is a critical, crisp impression of M.A. Soofi; and the other is by the legendary Khushwant Singh who discusses wider issues such as corruption comparisons between India and Pakistan and apparently believes whatever Bhatia has written despite the condemnation from late Bhutto's spokesperson.

Enjoy!

Mayank Austen Soofi: An Indian journalist's sleazy biography of Benazir Bhutto.

Petty games people play. Indian journalist Mr. Shyam Bhatia who had known Ms. Benazir Bhutto since her student days in Oxford, during the 70s, have penned a quickie biography of Pakistan's late prime minister. He has accused her of smuggling nuclear secrets to North Korea during a state visit to Pyongang by carrying CDs containing data about uranium enrichment in an overcoat "with deepest possible pockets".

That's just the most serious charge in this thin, seemingly hurriedly written book that has little flair for fine writing and hardly any consideration for credible sources to back up its wild claims.

Mr. Bhatia calls the young Ms. Bhutto a 'self-obsessed' girl with legendary tantrums who would throw "ashtrays like flying saucers at the servants" in ancestral home at Larkana.

Indeed, his Benazir-at-Oxford emerges as quite a flamboyant woman who drove a yellow MG sports car, dunked down white wine, and had a "myriad of mostly white boyfriends." However, Mr. Bhatia soon contradicts himself by claiming that Ms. Bhutto was madly in love with "two extremely handsome Pakistani students" who (here's the cake) "firmly rebuffed marital enquiries on her part".

In this breezy breathless portrayal of Benazir's young days, Mr. Bhatia hasn't inserted any footnotes to add to the credibility of his 'accusations'.

There's more.

Ms. Bhutto-at-Oxford "epitomized the classic spoilt rich girl from a third world country". Ms. Bhutto-the-PM was hardly any improvement. She was "no different from the village women of her home province who swear by faith healers and other superstitious practices". The author goes on to castigate her for making a "lengthy journey to Bangladesh to seek the benediction of a local holy man". Tch tch.

And, there's more.

According to Mr. Bhatia, Pakistan's assassinated leader had a "chameleon-like quality" who was "equally at ease with Marxists and capitalists, Indians and Israelis, Islamic fundamentalists and liberal democrats, Chinese, Australians, in fact anyone on planet". Phew.

Then there's a chapter on Ms. Bhutto-the-wife. It's basically about her husband's alleged corruption titled "The Marriage Business" (very smart-alecky!).

But the most damning charge that Mr. Bhatia makes against Ms. Bhutto is that she transferred nuclear secrets to North Korea by carrying CDs with sensitive information in her overcoat during a state visit to the hermit nation in 1993. The female James Bond returned home, according to Mr. Bhatia, with another set of CDs that carried missile information, courtesy North Korea.

How did Mr. Bhatia get his information? He says that Ms. Bhutto told him so in her Dubai home after a dinner of Lamb biryani, chocolate ice cream and fresh fruits (no white wine?). Any proof? Oh, he had his tape recorder but Ms. Bhutto asked him to switch it off. Why didn't he tell it earlier? After all, this was an explosive story and Mr. Bhatia is a journo. Oh, he had promised Ms. Bhutto not to reveal her confession in her lifetime. Convenient.

Let's face it. This is, how to put it"¦a sleazy biography. Lot of muck thrown but with scant regard to evidence and, err, decency.

It is true Ms. Bhutto left behind a questionable legacy but Mr. Bhatia could have written a more sincere bio. He had the good fortune to know his subject from a close quarter. He first saw Ms. Bhutto in "pyjamas and dressing-gown" in Oxford. He was by her side when Ms. Bhutto addressed the historic rally in Lahore's Iqbal Park following her triumphal return to Pakistan in 1986. He later went on do a series of interviews with Ms. Bhutto during her exile in Dubai. Pity then that Mr. Bhatia ended up with such trash.

Khushwant Singh May 23, 2008

I came to these grim conclusions after reading Shyam Bhatia's Goodbye Shahzadi (Roli). Though ostensibly "a political biography of Benazir Bhutto", it gives a vivid description of the state of affairs during the regimes of her father Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto, General Zia-ul Haq, President and ex-General Pervez Musharraf etc. It is a gripping tale which reads like a detective thriller. Shyam Bhatia has writing in his blood (he is the son of Prem Bhatia). He has been foreign correspondent of The Observer (London) and is editor of Asian Affairs. Though based in London, he travels frequently to the Middle East (he speaks Arabic).

Bhatia met up with Benazir when he was up in Oxford. She had come from Harvard to earn yet another degree at Oxford. At the time, she was a plain Jane; her ambition, nurtured by her father, was to get into the Pakistan Foreign Service and marry an eligible Pakistani. There were a few in college at her time, including cricketer Imran Khan. Benazir blossomed into a handsome woman, like her father became a rabble-rouser, and, after her father's execution, the spokesperson of Pakistan People's Party, the most popular political set up in the country.

Benazir was full of contradictions. When in the US or in Europe, she was a mod girl wearing jeans and enjoying a glass of wine with her meals. When in Pakistan, she wore salwar kameez and covered her head with a dupatta. An open-minded liberal democrat to the world, she was a haughty aristocrat in Sindh, rude to her staff "” throwing ashtrays at her servants when she lost her temper. She agreed to an arranged marriage with Asif Zardari, a half-baked moustachioed son of a cinema producer. During his wife's two tenures as Prime Minister, he amassed a vast fortune in real estate in England, USA and Swiss banks. He came to be known as "Mister 10 percent". Benazir, who did not get on with any member of her family, her mother Nusrat and her brothers Murtaza and Shah Nawaz (both were murdered), nor do their wives and children get on very well with her husband, condoned all his misdeeds. She made many enemies, among them President Musharraf and Nawaz Sharif (no paradigm of virtue). The mullah elements never accepted the idea of a woman being head of the state. The masses loved cheering her, voting for her but could not reconcile themselves being ruled by her. Her assassination did not come as a surprise.

There are many sordid details revealed by Shyam Bhatia for the first time. I give three examples. After Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto was hanged, his trousers were pulled down to photograph his genitals to see if he had been circumcised. This was done for possible evidence that he was not a proper Muslim, being the son of Hindu prostitute. The scientist A.Q. Khan who stole data from Holland and Canada to put together Pakistan's atom bomb sold the know-how to Libya and Iran for huge sums of money and a villa on the Caspian. He confessed to his crimes. When Bhatia put this in one of his columns, Khan replied addressing him as a"Hindu bastard". Benazir herself carried formulas prepared by Khan in her pocket to hand over to the North Koreans in exchange for missile technology. With leaders such as these, what hope is there of Pakistan becoming a prosperous and peace-loving state?