ISLAMABAD: At a time when news of differences between Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari and Chairman Bilawal Bhutto are circulating in the media, the party faces another controversy as the central leadership seems divided over Benazir Bhutto’s will.
Qamar Zaman Kaira, the Central Secretary Information of the PPP claims that Benazir had left two different wills in the name of her husband Asif Ali Zardari.
"The first will was regarding the party, and for being a matter of public interest Asif Zardari made it public," Kaira said while talking to DawnNews.
The PPP spokesman divulged that Asif Zardari holds another will of Benazir's which regards their family matters.
Kaira disclosed that in the second will the late premier named Asif Zardari as her successor, but he instead named Bilawal for the position.
"Benazir's family will had nothing to do with the PPP," he said.
He also dispelled the impression of differences between Zardari and Bilawal, although he did say that difference of opinion does exist.
Kaira claimed that news of differences are part of conspiracy against the party.
"Conspiracies have also been hatched against the PPP founder Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto and the marriage of Benazir and Zardari," he said.
On the other hand, PPP leader and former MNA Sherry Rehman has shrugged the statement aside, saying that Benazir had made only one will.
Rehman said that she saw Benazir’s will after her assassination in 2007 and was adamant that the late prime minister only had one.
“Benazir Bhutto had only one will which I saw myself,” DawnNews quoted her as saying.
Benazir was assassinated in a gun-and-bomb attack outside Rawalpindi’s Liaquat Bagh on December 27, 2007. She was killed after addressing an election campaign rally in the city.
Days after the assassination, the PPP leadership had announced that Benazir had designated her son Bilawal as chairperson of the party while her husband Asif Ali Zardari was named co-chairperson.
Zardari later took leadership of the party while Bilawal proceeded to finish his studies at Oxford.
The PPP co-chairperson later was elected Pakistan president in 2008 and served till 2013 in that position.
