Zardari has been charged with having a hand in Murtaza Bhutto's murder. What an irony of fate! Recognised as Pakistan's richest and most powerful, man the status achieved in a blitzkrieg fashion in the few years of his spouse Benazir Bhutto's ascendance, Zardari has been blamed for a vast array of crimes, corruption being the least harmful of them.

Zardari's arraignment evokes other sentiments also. What a family Sir Shahnawaz Bhutto of Larkana, Sind had sired and left behind to vitiate the annals of Pakistan. Illustrious, yes and also notorious — this was doubtlessly a remarkable family. Z A was but a henchman picked up by a despot come from the barracks. There was nothing to glory In that although he could be immortalised for his nonsensical outburst promising to live on grass for 2,000 years rather than make peace. It is for the blown up Bhutto, blown up by developments on the eastern wing that leaves a memory, a very unflattering one, ofhim. Of one with hands bloodied three million times more indelibly than Lady Macbeth's. What came of his fire-eating exploits? He was hanged. His family fell out Into mutually warring Individuals. His younger son died in a hotel in Nice, suspected to have been poisoned. And Murtaza the most impressive of the lot. lost his way and got killed consplratorially In which his sister's husband is widely believed to have been the keyman. Nusrat the mother and Benazir her daughter had been political rivals for long and Benazir's one achievement so far has been burying the People's Party full five fathoms below the five Punjab rivers.

A happy and prosperous and democratic Pakistan Is what we and other partners in the subcon-tlnent pray for.