Songs of blood and sword

I was told that Fatima Bhutto wrote this book when her father’s alleged killers were released from prison long before they had completed their sentences. So I thought this would mean that the book is a full-scale war of words against those behind the murder of his father. Yes, the bitterness is poured, but in pieces. However, having read the book… I think I was wrong to take the reviewer’s word for granted. I think the book is a story of his father’s life and the way it has happened to him, in front of her.

Fatima was 14 years old (1996) when police killed her father, Murtaza, allegedly after a shootout outside his home in Karachi. She uses that incident as a trigger to vividly describe the politics of Pakistan, which claimed the lives of 4 people in Bhutto’s legacy. Being as young as he was at the time of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto’s death, there are some accounts of the political scene, although most of it is narrated as a second-hand account (indeed, wherever you come across such a narrative in the book , it is safe to assume Fatima’s absence during that event) Most accounts of her father are from close and dear friends, colleagues, and large groups of people who had the opportunity to interact with Murtaza. Ultimately, she adored Murtaza like any other girl her father. She is quite uncritical in her writing about him and shows him in an idealistic light.

The centrality of the book comes from the rivalry between a brother (Murtaza) and a sister (Benazir) that she has done with an open heart. It begins with a faint “love my aunt” note, which was a feeling she had as a child for Benazir. However, she then becomes increasingly critical of her, Benazir’s estrangement from Murtaza and her family, her ambitions making the relationship even bitter.

Fatima also takes a critical look at what caused Benazir to fall out of favor with her family. She mentions certain turning points in his life, one of which was his reconciliation with the Zia regime and participation in a democratic process led by him, which Murtaza opposed and eventually became the apple. of discord. His goal was to keep his father’s legacy alive and uphold his ideals through his party. However, Murtaza’s exile from Pakistan between 1977 and 1993 allowed Benazir to consolidate his control over the party. There are several hints of her marriage to Asif Ali Zardari, whom Fatima is very cynical about and shows as a greedy person in her prose.

Then comes the story that really made this book… Murtaza’s “shooting” (read – murder) while Benazir was the PM. The darker side of this is the fact that the suspected shooters, who were jailed, were released when Zardari became president. Fatima now presents some critical pointers about a conspiracy to kill her father, in which she establishes some facts, such as that there was no court order. for his father’s arrest, witness arrests, evidence destroyed, suspects released, etc.

Songs of Blood and Sword is not a vindictive display of the corrupt and treacherous political world of Pakistan, but there are some grim realities to it; it is more a personal story from the eye of a girl, who saw the world collapse before her eyes.