Daughter of the East goes to Washington with her cup full of woes

Riding on her 1995 visit, when her telegenic persona and the allure of being the Islamic world’s first woman prime minister fetched her plenty of coverage and goodwill, Bhutto interviewed again this week on CNN and met with the editorial boards of the Washington Post and the Washington Times, among others.

But besides clucking at her sorry plight, there was little sympathy. Tales of the Bhuttos rapacious plunder ofPakistan had arrived here ahead of her.

She also met several US lawmakers including Senator Christopher Dodd (D), Congressman Tom Lantos (D) and Senator Richard Lugar (R) and addressed a meeting of the National Democratic Institute during a five-day private visit orchestrated mainly by Mark Siegel, her lobbyist friend in Washington.

But it was her scheduled 20-minute meeting with Mrs Clinton at the White House — which turned into an 80-minute sobfest — that attracted most attention.

The First Lady had visited Pakistan with daughter Chelsea in 1995 when Benazir was prime minister. She apparently opened her doors to the former Mohtarma and listened to her woes even as President Clinton, who was in the White House at that time, kept away.

Bhutto told the First Lady that the corruption charges against her were just a cover for a crusade to disqualify a woman from politics, particularly because she had developed such a good base.

According to the PPP, the meeting was held “in a very relaxed andcordial atmosphere” and Bhutto found the first lady “very responsive” to her version of being the target of a media trial and vilification campaign without due process of justice.

Bruce Riedel, special assistant to President Clinton for South Asia affairs, was present at the meeting. Bhutto also met the Assistant Secretary of State for South Asia, Karl Inderfurth, in the State Department.

While it would be improbable, if not downright ridiculous, for an Indian leader, like say Narasimha Rao or the late Indira Gandhi, to come weeping to the US in search of justice, it seems to pose no problems for the leader of country which has served as an American vassal vassal in the past.

Bhutto in fact even took her lament to the editors and columnists of the Washington Post, telling them in a private meeting of her troubles.

Not only her relatives but even friends of hers have had their funds frozen, a cousin by marriage had to flee by bus through Afghanistan, and even the man who served her coffee fell preyto “draconian measures to squeeze, strangle, to suffocate us,” she complained.

In their account of the meeting, a Post writer said Bhutto can still be “mesmerizing and hypnotic, if you can follow her… (and) even in her plight as deposed prime minister, anguished wife and devoted daughter fending off corruption charges, (she) seems imperious”.

Benazir became emotional only when she mentioned that her husband, Asif Ali Zardari, was arrested on charges of murdering her brother. “Her eyes turned red and watery and she lowered her eyelids, regaining control,” diplomatic writer Nora Boustany wrote.

Bhutto said her husband was suffering from spondylitis, a spinal disease, and that improper treatment had resulted in “precancerous lesions on his back”. She herself has been treated for high blood pressure, diabetic tendencies and a tumor that proved benign because of the stress she was under. The Post said Bhutto rushed through a maze of charges against her involving suspected misuse of public funds andalleged payoffs on warplane, tractor, gold and sugar deals, and made no specific mention of reports of sprawling estates bought in Surrey, England, and Normandy, France, or of polo fields and prize ponies bought by her husband with funds meant for public parks.

Bhutto claimed the Nawaz Sharief Government is using accusations of drug dealing and money laundering as leverage with British and Swiss authorities to get at her and her husband’s assets. “We are being stitched up,” she fumed. Even the Clinton administration has looked askance at reports about Asif Zardari being involved in the drug trade. Meanwhile, Bhutto’s friend and classmate Peter Galbraith, is contesting elections for the Congress in Massachusetts. He has been a long time Benazir ally, having helped secure her release from prison in the 1980s with persistent lobbying in Washington.