The Right to Bury and that of Mourning

Nusrat Bhutto wife of Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto (Late)

With the demise of the last veteran Bhutto, Begum Nusrat Bhutto, wife of the late Prime Minister of Pakistan, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto and ex-chairperson of the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP), the Bhutto political era comes to an end, yet again. With the assassination of Benazir Bhutto the practical role of Bhuttos in Pakistani politics had already ended. Nusrat Bhutto was a symbolic continuation and a reminder of the struggle the Bhuttos died for, one after the other.

The only 3rd generation Bhutto family that remains visible and somewhat politically involved is that of late Murtaza Bhutto (Zulfikar Ali Bhutto’s son) represented by his daughter Fatima Bhutto and son Zulfikar Ali Bhutto Junior who now live in London. Their mother Ghinva Bhutto remains active in very limited politics as Chief of Pakistan People’s Party (Bhutto Shaheed).

Zulfikar Bhutto Junior, Ghinwa Bhutto and Fatima Bhutto

Sanam Bhutto, the only surviving child of late PM Zulfikar Ali Bhutto and sister of Benazir Bhutto stays out of politics and lives in London.

The Bhutto Family that once was

Many speak of the end of Pakistan People’s Party after Zardari’s take over on the assassination of Benazir Bhutto. Many yet speak of the need for a young leader from the Bhutto blood-line to take reigns of the PPP for its revival. Many still think that the workers of the Pakistan People’s Party, also nicked ‘Jiyalas’ (the daring brave), are the real carriers of the mission of the late Bhutto. However practically all that remains mere thinking as Zardari continues to mainstream the Zardari family into the core party positions of the PPP. The first step was taken into this direction by making Bilawal Zardari the Chairman of the Pakistan People’s Party and changing his name to Bilawal Bhutto Zardari in order to highlight his relationship with the Bhutto family.

Bilawal Zardari holds the picture of his slain mother late Benazir Bhutto as the new Chairman of the PPP along with the co-chair, his father Asif Zardari

With the recent news coming in about the differences between Ghinva Bhutto and Asif Zardari (President of Pakistan) on who will get to bury the late Nusrat Bhutto is actually the state to which the cause of the Bhuttos has actually been reduced to: The right to bury over that of mourning.

While the Pakistani nation recounts their memories of the late Bhuttos, their role in Pakistani politics and their tragic history of assassinations and extra-judicial murder, Larkana, the hometown of the Bhuttos struggles to bridge burying rites with mourning.