"Let's also acknowledge those Pakistanis who were compelled to think well of Mrs Gandhi for a range of reasons, occasionally despite themselves. Benazir Bhutto, regardless of her own pronounced opinion on Kashmir, could not have forgotten Mrs Gandhi as the one Indian who was outspoken in her petition to Ziaul Haq to spare Z.A. Bhutto's life. Mrs Gandhi was in regular touch with Benazir's distraught mother after Bhutto's execution, lending her shoulder for the healing that never came about."

Read the column in the Dawn.


Image: Indira Gandhi with Zulfikar Ali Bhutto