"Mom prepared ‘political plan’ for Pak"

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Islamabad, Sep 6 : Slain former premier, Benazir Bhutto had drawn up a “political plan” for ushering in democracy in Pakistan a few days before her assassination in which she listed removal of Pervez Musharraf from presidency as the first step, according to her teenaged daughter.

Bakhtawar Zardari Bhutto, the 18-year-old daughter of Bhutto and PPP presidential nominee Asif Ali Zardari, said that after her mother’s death in December last year she found a handwritten note in her purse which had a political plan. “Removal of Musharraf was the first point in the plan. There are many more,” Bakhtawar, who got herself registered as a voter two days ago, told The News daily.

Bakhtawar said the note was written a few days before Bhutto’s assassination and that her father is determined to implement all the points listed by his wife in the “political plan”. She said her mother had lost “half of her trust” in Musharraf after the suicide bomb attacks on her homecoming rally in Karachi in October last year. “The rest of the trust was lost after the imposition of emergency on November 3, 2007,” she said.

Bhutto was sure that Musharraf could not contribute to resolving the ongoing problems of Pakistan. “My mother was in fact of the view that Musharraf was part of the problem and must be removed,” she said. Musharraf resigned to avoid impeachment by the PPP-led coalition.

Bakhtawar said she was also witness to the conversation that her parents had before Bhutto returned to Pakistan from self-exile. “Yes, my father begged my mother many times that she should not return to Pakistan. My father was sure that enemies of the PPP will definitely target my mother but my mother never listened to him because she had already spent 10 years in exile and she wanted to come back before the elections. “She had a debate with our father but she won the debate with strong arguments,” she said.

Bhutto also mentioned this conversation in her last book Reconciliation: Islam, Democracy and the West which was released a few months after her death. Looking forward to her father’s win in the presidential polls, Bakhtawar said she would shout the “Jeay Bhutto” (long live Bhutto) slogan when her father takes oath as President.