KANDAHAR – Pakistan’s government now says opposition leader Benazir Bhutto died of natural causes.
“After a thorough investigation, we have determined that it was simply Ms Benazir’s time to leave this earth,” said Rashid Qureshi, a government spokesman. “Sometimes Allah calls people home unexpectedly, and it looks as if that’s what happened in this case. It was simply old age.”
The news surprised some in Pakistan who said Bhutto did not show many typical signs of people who die from old age. Indeed, they claim, she was keeping a busy schedule in running a campaign to become the country’s prime minister.
“I know people usually associate death by natural causes with people lying hospital beds,” Qureshi said. “But really anyone can die at anytime. And I mean anyone.”
At first many in the liberal news media speculated that Bhutto had been assassinated, as a man was caught on tape firing a gun at her around the time she allegedly died of natural causes, and a huge bomb went off as well. The government later suggested that she had bumped her head in the explosion.
“Those findings were premature,” said Qureshi. “Some might say it’s a terrible coincidence that Bhutto died naturally just as a man was shooting a gun at her, but then again nobody could have imagined that two planes would accidentally fly into the World Trade Center on the same morning either.”
