Zardari's daughters back him on twitter
After keeping a low profile on micro-blogging site Twitter for a while, President Asif Ali Zardari's two daughters are out to defend their father at a time when the Pakistan People's Party (PPP)-led government is facing challenges from the judiciary and the military.
After keeping a low profile on micro-blogging site Twitter for a while, Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari's two daughters are out to defend their father at a time when the Pakistan People's Party (PPP)-led government is facing challenges from the judiciary and the military.
Bakhtawar and Aseefa Bhutto-Zardari, who have focused on 'safe' tweets in the past year or so, are back with a bang by saying things such as, "PPP is not a party of cowards."
"People cry over immunity but forget my father spent 11-and-a-half-years in prison without a single conviction," Bakhtawar pointed out in a tweet.
"Jails don't scare us," she said.
Aseefa, the youngest daughter of slain premier Benazir Bhutto, tweeted yesterday: "PM (Yousuf Raza) Gilani standing tall in the face of adversity; doing justice to the position and legacy of (Benazir Bhutto) and (Zulfliqar Ali Bhutto). Proud of him."
Elder sister Bakhatawar's tweets were more hard-hitting. "For eleven (and) a-half-years a lady has fought in every city in Pakistan, across every continent in the country 2 prove her innocence," she wrote while quoting her late mother.
In another Tweet on Benazir, Bakhtawar wrote that "there is not only the Supreme Court but there is the court of the people and the court of history."
She also re-tweeted posts by PPP followers and said, "We are a party of fighters, martyrs because we believe in a democratic Pakistan."
Their brother and nominal head of the ruling party Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari has till now stayed away from tweeting about current issues.
These have included challenges faced due to the memo scandal and the Supreme Court's order to reopen graft cases against Zardari, failing which Premier Gilani has been charged with contempt of court.
Bilawal, who rejoined Twitter over a year ago, is hardly ever active. However, when he was active, he registered his presence with several anti-Zia-ul-Haq tweets.
"I wish Zia (Gen Zia-ul-Haq) had lived. I wish he had lived to witness our revenge," he had said in a tweet.
This isn't the first time the two sisters have backed their father in cyberspace. They once cornered their famous cousin Fatima Bhutto for demonising their "incredible dad" in her writings.
Fatima had attacked Zardari's much-publicised "leisure" trip to Europe while Pakistan was devastated by floods in 2010 by tweeting and retweeting Zardari-related trivia and subtly touching on an incident in which a man hurled shoes at the President in Birmingham.
Following Fatima's tweets, Bakhtawar was quick to retort with "despite all the hue and cry about the President's visit -- we have managed to get more than 150 million dollars in aid for the flood victims." She took a dig at her cousin, tweeting: "We are more concerned with delivering rather than advertising."
Aseefa too backed up Bakhtawar by advising Fatima to take to "fiction writing."
She wrote: "Pakistan may have lost a talented fiction writer when Fatima Bhutto went into journalism. Clearly, she is adept at spinning a tale, fudging facts and re-defining reality in a manner that is the exclusive domain of talented story tellers."
However, the sisters have not had it any easy in cyberspace.
"Stop creating fuss...Wake up they're all dead. Let us live at least! Stop selling dead bodies!" read a tweet in response to Bakhtawar's post.