Asif Ali Zardari’s voice cracked with sorrow minutes after learning of the death of his wife.

“All I can say is we’re devastated,” he told The Times in a brief telephone interview from his family’s villa in the Gulf city of Dubai.

“It is a total shock,” the 51-year-old senior leader of the Pakistan People’s Party said.

The couple celebrated their 20th wedding anniversary ten days ago.

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Last night, just before supper, he packed up their three teenage children for the first flight home to Karachi, the city she had fled eight years ago.

When Mr Zardari first heard that his wife had been killed, he refused to believe it.

“I have only now begun to mourn her death,” he said before boarding the aircraft last night. “Now my heart is broken.”

Emirates Hills in Dubai may seem an unlikely place to find one of modern history’s most controversial political figures, but Ms Bhutto could be found most mornings walking through the quiet streets of the gated community of multimillion-dollar mansions.

She would invite neighbours to afternoon tea. Her garden, hidden behind a wrought-iron gate and concrete fence, was her pride and joy.

“She was a very nice, very warm and very friendly person,” a neighbour said. “She went out of her way to get to know us.”

Ms Bhutto had been spending less and less time in Dubai as she positioned herself for a comeback in Pakistan. There were diplomatic trips to London and Washington, punctuated by volatile visits to Pakistan. Dubai, a short flight away from her homeland, was the place where she sought respite. Here she could spend time with her family while closely monitoring events in Pakistan.

Ms Bhutto led a very private life during her time in the UAE, refusing most media interviews and making little of her identity as a political figure. In Dubai she was known simply as a doting mother who loved to spend time with her family. Ms Bhutto’s mother, who suffers from Alzheimer’s disease, lived with her along with her three teenage children, Bilawal, Bakhtawar and Asifa.

Mr Zardari had flown to Dubai this month from his home in New York, where he resides, to receive medical treatment for a series of ailments, including diabetes and heart problems.

He spent 11 years in a Pakistani jail, during which time he was tortured and nearly killed.

Their son, Bilawal, 19, was on holiday in Dubai from his studies at Oxford and was inconsolable, according to a relative.

“Three teenage children! This country will be torn apart,” the relative wrote in a text message from Pakistan.

Last night police surrounded the Zardaris’ villa. The Pakistani flag, which normally flew proudly on the front lawn, was lowered out of sight.

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