Larkana lights up for Benazir Bhutto’s birthday

Thousands of people are expected at the mausoleum of Benazir Bhutto on her 57th birth anniversary.

LARKANA/KARACHI/SUKKUR: Thousands of people are expected at the mausoleum of Benazir Bhutto, former chairperson of the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) and prime minister, on her 57th birth anniversary. The crowd will be more colourful and diverse than the one that gathers at the mausoleum on Benazir’s father, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto’s, anniversary.

While men dominate the latter’s memorials, it is the women who are seen at the forefront of Benazir’s anniversary. Children and young men too are more visible during Benazir’s memoriam.

The reason, residents feel, is that while Zulfikar Ali Bhutto has become a distant memory, Benazir’s era has just begun.

“The newer generation only knew Zulfikar Ali Bhutto as a historical figure, they only read about him,” explains Javed Mustafa, a school teacher in Larkana, “But they knew Mohtarma [Benazir] as a real person, they saw her, met her and loved her.” The living association that the young people of the province feel with Benazir is what makes for a larger crowd at her birth anniversary.

Large airy tents have been put up opposite the Garhi Khuda Bukhsh mausoleum so that visitors from across the country can find some shade from the blazing sun while they take part in the celebrations. Benazir Bhutto’s mausoleum is already bedecked with floral wreaths as a stream of visitors has been flowing to Garhi Khuda Bukhsh since Saturday.

Small delays, important arrivals

President Asif Ali Zardari reached Naudero on Sunday to celebrate his wife’s birth anniversary. The president was accompanied by Interior Minister Rehman Malik and PPP Information Secretary Fauzia Wahab.  During his two-day visit, the president will attend the birthday celebrations and as a tribute to the late prime minister, he will also donate blood at the President House in Naudero.

Meanwhile, several other federal and provincial ministers and leaders were not as lucky. The Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) had arranged for three special flights from Karachi and Islamabad to get all the special guests on time for Benazir’s anniversary. However, the flights were delayed by around four to five hours, causing the eager PPP workers at the airport to leave without meeting their officials. Security at the Sukkur airport had been tightened with heavy contingents of Rangers and police officials deployed and put on high alert.

Several parliamentarians and ministers arrived at Sukkur and made their way to Naudero, after which they prayed at Benazir’s grave.

Security measures

All security arrangements have been put in place by the Sindh government. The Sindh chief minister held a meeting on Saturday to discuss the security measures with the provincial  law minister, home minister, revenue and local bodies ministers. Mobile jammers, walk-through gates, CCTV cameras have been put in place along with heavy contingents of security personnel. Moreover, all vendors and stalls will be pushed back when the VIP movement, including the president, provincial chief minister and others, will arrive at the mausoleum on Monday.

Celebrations

The province wide celebrations will mark the event, with recitations, prayers and distribution of free meals. A conference will be held at the Naudero House and PPP workers will be addressed by the president. More than 500 guests, including poets, intellectuals and leaders of the party, will participate in the conference and pay tribute to Benazir Bhutto, informed Waqar Mehdi, the Sindh information secretary.

A three-day blood donation drive will be launched to mark Benazir Bhutto’s 57th birth anniversary. All provincial, district headquarters and taluka hospitals have set up medical camps and a monitoring cell has been established to oversee the blood donation drive, organised by the health department.

The camp will continue from June 21 to June 23. According to the Sindh Chief Minister Syed Qaim Ali Shah, all arrangements had been made to collect blood donations on the eve of Benazir’s birthday. He urged workers and the rest of the public to donate blood in memory of their late leader.

Sukkur cleans up its act

The cleaning campaign in areas of Gunjanabad, New Sukkur has changed direction. With the arrival of important personalities in Larkana, the taluka municipal administration of New Sukkur has taken all sanitation workers to the roads and routes that will be traversed by the ministers and politicians to Larkana. Dozens of workers are busy sweeping away the garbage piles at important roads of the city. As a result of the vigorous campaign, roads have become wider and traffic faster-at least in those parts of Sukkur that will be visited by the government officials in town for Benazir’s celebrations.

Additional input: Agencies

Published in The Express Tribune, June 21^st, 2010.