Fatima Bhutto attempts to write an epic about a tragedy of Shakespearean proportions that has befallen her family.

“Fatima’s grandfather [Zulfikar Ali Bhutto] was executed by Gen Ziaul Haq, her uncle was murdered in the south of France, her father [Murtaza Bhutto] was killed outside the house where they lived in Karachi, and last year her aunt Benazir was assassinated,” Publisher Goodwin

Fatima Bhutto is writing a, yet to be titled, J’Accuse (I accuse) investigative book focusing on the murder of her father Mir Murtaza Bhutto, but the book is also expected to shed light on Benazir Bhutto and Mr. Asif Zardari, whom she blames for the murder of her father.

Fatima Bhutto lives with her step mother Ghinwa Bhutto. Fatima Bhutto’s biological mother was Fauzia. 

Murtaza Bhutto (pictured above) divorced Fauzia because Fauzia’s sister was a suspect in his brother Shahnawaz’s death (pictured here).

 Fatima’s Uncle and son of Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto, Shahnawaz Bhutto possibly poisoned by his wife in France. 

Fatima sealing deal to sell Bhutto story?

 * Benazir’s niece has reportedly sent proposal for as-yet-untitled memoir to British agent

ISLAMABAD: Slain former premier Benazir Bhutto’s fiery niece Fatima Bhutto may be about to sell a memoir on the Bhutto dynasty.

Twenty-five-year-old Fatima, who already has two books to her credit, has reportedly sent a 12-page proposal for the as-yet-untitled family memoir of Pakistan’s best known political dynasty to top British literary agent David Godwin.

Fatima, who is currently travelling, is likely to meet Godwin, whose clients include Arundhati Roy, Kiran Desai and William Dalrymple, in London shortly. “It’s the story of her family from the inside – she is the most remarkable woman with an extraordinary story to tell,” Godwin was quoted as saying by the literary website bookseller.com.

“Fatima’s grandfather [Zulfikar Ali Bhutto] was executed by Gen Ziaul Haq, her uncle was murdered in the south of France, her father [Murtaza Bhutto] was killed outside the house where they lived in Karachi, and last year her aunt Benazir was assassinated,” Godwin said.

“It’s a tragedy of Shakespearean proportions, a family ravaged by death and division,” Godwin added.

Fatima and her stepmother Ghinwa Bhutto have often hinted that they believe Benazir or her widower Asif Ali Zardari had a hand in the killing of Murtaza. Godwin said Fatima “believes Benazir was the cause of the death of her father and part of the book will be an investigation into whether that was the case”.

Though Benazir made several warm references in her autobiography, ‘Daughter of the East’, to her niece, Fatima believes her aunt tried to split the Bhutto family apart. Benazir also disparaged Ghinwa as a “Lebanese belly dancer”, and six months after Murtaza’s death persuaded Fatima’s biological mother, Fauzia, to return to Karachi to seek parental custody.

“It was just vulgar and crude,” Fatima said about the event while talking to the Guardian newspaper after Benazir’s assassination last year.

Fatima did her Master’s degree at London’s School of African and Oriental Studies. Instead of heading a debating society like her aunt at Oxford, she wrote her dissertation on the resistance movement to former president Ziaul Haq.

She published a book of poetry, ‘Whispers of the Desert’, at the age of 15, followed in 2006 by a collection of stories about the 2005 earthquake that killed 73,000 people in Pakistan. nni