HarperCollins to publish Bhutto's last book

New York, Jan 7 (UNI) HarperCollins publishers will rush out a book, 'Reconciliation: Islam, Democracy and the West', written by Pakistan slain Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto on February 12, six days before postponed parliamentary elections are scheduled.

The book opens with a chronicle of her return to Pakistan in October after eight years of exile and the assassination attempt upon her return.

In the book completed days before she was killed, Bhutto argues that Islam should be reconciled with democratic principles.

Mark Siegel worked with Bhutto as a collaborating writer Her husband and PPP's chairman Asif Ali Zardari has written an afterword with her three children.

''No one could have know that these would be Benazir Bhutto's final words, and somehow that makes them carry even more weight, especially at a time like this,'' Tim Duggan, who edited the book, said.

''This book is her legacy,'' the New york Post quoted her as saying.

HarperCollins described the book as ''a bold, uncompromising vision of hope for the future of not only Pakistan but the Islamic world''.

HarperCollins has also bought paperback rights to 'Daughter of the East'- Bhutto's autobiography, originally published in Britain in 1988. It will be reissued in the United States in the spring under the title 'Daughter of Destiny'.

UNI XC SYU DB2021