London, Jan 12: Criticising the Pakistan People’s Party decision to anoint Bilawal Bhutto as the party’s next chairperson following the assassination of ex-premier Benazir Bhutto, Fatima Bhutto, daughter of Murtaza Bhutto, has said that Bilawal’s elevation is a dangerous step and it doesn’t benefit Pakistan.

“The idea that it has to be a Bhutto, I think, is a dangerous one. It doesn’t benefit Pakistan. It doesn’t benefit a party that’s supposed to be run on democratic lines and it doesn’t benefit us as citizens if we think only about personalities and not about platforms,” Fatima, daughter of Benazir’s younger brother Murtaza, said in an interview to The Times.

“That’s the problem – it’s a field that’s held hostage by so few and it’s become in a sense the family business, like an antique shop, where it’s just ‘So and So and Sons’ and then grandsons and great grandsons. It just gets handed down,” she added.

Fatima further said that neither “she nor her 17-year-old brother were the rightful heirs – even though they are the offspring of the male line.”

She pointed out that it is the PPP workers who believe that a Bhutto can only lead the party.

“Ultimately the party workers believe that nobody can head the party but a Bhutto, but I don’t think the workers believe that on whomever you put the Bhutto name can lead,” Fatima said.

Denouncing the Musharraf regime’s claim that Islamic radicals had taken Benazir’s life, she also pointed out that the PPP was trying to cash in on Benazir’s death.

“They seem to be a party in a hurry and they seem to be desperate to cash in on her blood. There was a certain coterie around her that benefited richly from her Government and they plan, it seems, to benefit richly from her death as well,” Fatima said.

She demanded that Asif Ali Zardari must make Benazir’s will public.

“I think at some point the will should be made public, if indeed there was one,” Fatima said.

Talking about possibility of her joining politics in the country, she said, “If there was an opportunity for new faces to come up and new voices to be heard and if I could be of service in some way, I wouldn’t say no”, adding, “But I’m not interested in being a symbol for anyone.” (ANI)