Nusrat Bhutto, widow of former Pakistan Prime Minister Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto (ZAB) and mother of his political successor Benazir Bhutto, died on Sunday evening in Dubai following a prolonged illness. She is survived by daughter Sanam and eight grandchildren torn apart by differences within the Bhutto clan.
Her body is being brought to Pakistan to be buried along with her husband and three children at the family’s graveyard in Garhi Khuda Bukhsh at their ancestral place in the Naudero area of Sindh province. President Asif Ali Zardari - who was in Jordan to attend a conference - reached Dubai from Amman to bring the body to Pakistan.
According to the presidential spokesman, Mr. Zardari will be joined in Dubai by Sanam Bhutto and his own children, Bilawal, Bakhtawar and Aseefa - all of whom are in London - and together they will bring the body to Pakistan.
Another grandchild, author Fatima Bhutto - daughter of ZAB’s second-born and eldest son Murtaza Bhutto - appeared briefly before the media weeping in the arms of her step-mother Ghinwa Bhutto. Their remarks to the media were a stark reminder of the bitter relations between the surviving members of the Bhutto family. A sobbing Fatima told the media that Benazir Bhutto’s family had kept her away from her grandmother for 15 years.
Ms. Bhutto, who had been living in Dubai for years, is credited with moulding the Pakistan People’s Party founded by her husband into a vehicle of resistance against dictatorships as she had to pick up the reins of the organisation when ZAB was sent to prison and later executed by martial ruler Zia-ul Haq.
Billed as an epitome of “grace under fire”, Ms. Bhutto stood up to the batons of the Haq regime and also braved the execution of her husband, death of her two sons under mysterious circumstances and finally the assassination of daughter Benazir in 2007.
