Fatima Bhutto, the daughter of Benazir's brother Murtaza, is intelligent, opinionated and feisty. A political writer, Fatima has penned two books and writes a hard-hitting newspaper column. A close lieutenant to her more politically ambitious mother, Fatima is a politician in training.But speaking to The Guardian, Fatima says she has no political ambitions and is unlikely to overshadow Bilawal, her now famous cousin, anytime soon.
Speaking to The Guardian in October 2007, days before Benazir's return to Pakistan, the pair was somber at the prospect of her aunt's imminent return. "If she didn't sign the death warrant, then who had the power to cover it up? She did," alleges Fatima, speaking about her father's death. In terms of political ideology, what we read, how we think, we are very different. I don't think that I'm anything like her," says Fatima when compared to her aunt.
Benazir, however, clearly loved her niece, which is evident in her autobiography Daughter of the East, which has several warm references. Fatima, though, maintains that she tried to split the family apart. She belittled Ghinwa, Fatima's stepmother, as a 'Lebanese belly dancer', and soon after Murtaza's death, convinced Fatima's biological mother, Fauzia, to seek parental custody.
