Fads, Fashion and Foolery for 1994

NEXT, THE BATTLING BHUTTOS: Britain has its royals--and Pakistan has the Bhuttos. Both families, no doubt, will generate their share of gossip in 1994.

Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto and her estranged mother, Nusrat, have been feuding over which of them is the rightful chairwoman of the ruling Pakistan People’s Party. Nusrat is also said to generally favor her son--Benazir’s younger brother, Murtaza Bhutto.

Will 1994 see a reconciliation between Benazir and her mom? Last month, the prime minister gave Nusrat a public buss when both showed up for the laying of a foundation stone at a child care center in Karachi. But that didn’t signal the end of the feud, most believe.

Then again, maybe politics Pakistan-style has more in common with the Hollywood hit “Ghost.” As UCLA Prof. Stanley Wolpert notes in his recent biography of clan founder and former Pakistani Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, there is a persistent belief among millions of Pakistanis that the charismatic Bhutto was, after all, not hanged at the hands of Gen. Zia ul-Haq on April 4, 1979--that he never died.

So stay tuned.