Tragedy stalks political dynasty

THE Bhutto family has dominated Pakistan's political horizon for nearly three decades, holding sway over the imagination of millions of loyalists and many detractors.

The saga of the dynasty has been marked by spectacular triumphs and epic tragedies.

The Bhuttos not only dominated the political scene for those years, they were elected to power four out of five times in general elections since 1970.

Since the late 1960s, the political division in the country has been between the Bhuttos and their Pakistan People's Party on the one side and the rest of the political groups on the other.

But then one after the other, the family members met with a series of tragedies, both political and emotional.

They lost power in a military coup in 1977 and, two years later, Benazir Bhutto's father, and the party's founder, Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto, was tried and hanged by the military.