If so, many Pakistanis disagree with her. Though Zardari has always denied any wrongdoing, his critics call him ““Mr. Ten Percent’’–the commission allegedly demanded and collected for facilitating government licenses, permits and contracts worth millions of dollars. Zardari’s family was nearly broke when he married Bhutto, but since she came to power his personal fortunes have conspicuously improved. His wife, born to great family wealth herself, may not question how he got his Mercedes-Benzes and his string of racehorses, but others are suspicious. Two weeks ago, President Farooq Leghari, a former political ally, dismissed Bhutto as prime minister on charges of massive corruption and undermining the judiciary, among other things. There has also been speculation in the Pakistani press that Zardari could possibly have been mixed up in the death of Bhutto’s estranged brother, Murtaza, who was shot in a police ambush last September.
In one of her many interviews since her downfall, Bhutto said that such rumors were typical of her opponents. ““They only hound the spouses of the Bhuttos, first of my father, now me,’’ she said. Her father, former prime minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, was hanged in 1979 by the regime that deposed him. Benazir, who had been educated at Harvard and Oxford, was consumed by a quest for revenge. Fighting to regain her family’s power, she was elected prime minister in 1988, was dismissed two years later and won election again in 1993. Though in many respects a traditional wife, she became a hero to feminists everywhere.
So far, Zardari has never been convicted of corruption, not even when his wife was out of power and Nawaz Sharif led a hostile regime that tried–and failed–to pin something on him. Now Pakistanis await a new chapter with a sense of inevitability. President Leghari has called for new elections on Feb. 3, and to prevent Bhutto from running again it is widely expected that some official action will be taken against her or her husband. Meanwhile, Bhutto nurses her resentments. Dandling one of her daughters on her knee last week, she told reporters: ““I know my children will face questions at their school, and they will be taunted about their mother being dismissed. So I told them to say, “My mummy has been prime minister twice. How many times has your mummy been prime minister?’ ’’ Bhutto added that she expected to become prime minister for a third time. But first she must dig herself and her husband out of a very deep hole.
