Lahore: While former prime minister Benazir Bhutto has not commented on an Indian media report that the salad days of her marriage are over, her spokesman has termed it a "baseless, false and bogus story".
Farhatullah Babar said Benazir and her husband Asif Zardari were "living together and had no differences, as reported by [Outlook] magazine", The Daily Times said.
The newspaper also carried a report from New York, which said Bhutto and Zardari attended the annual prayer breakfast meeting at the White House yesterday, addressed by US President George W. Bush.
Pakistani journalist Mariana Babar, who is said to be friendly with Bhutto, quoted many sources in her article in Outlook, saying the "romantic Bhutto-Zardari saga" was over.
Babar says Bhutto is, however, "too conservative" to go for a divorce and will keep up the facade of a marriage for the public.
"There are, however, incontrovertible signs of their marriage being on the rocks if not totally kaput. For one, Benazir lives in Dubai, Zardari in a New York apartment with his dogs," the magazine report said.
Sacrificed
Outlook also printed an article by Bhutto titled Asif and I in which Benazir wrote: "In the end, personal life is sacrificed on the altar of political commitment. This is because the public is the political family.
"To succeed and reach the top, most families, irrespective of gender, whether in politics or other professions, have to go the extra mile consequently sacrificing personal interests to the larger cause."
