The iconic Begum Nusrat Bhutto, the former first lady who has been christened the Mother of Democracy, was laid to rest in the Bhuttos’ ancestral graveyard in Garhi Khuda Bux, right next to her husband, Pakistan’s first democratically-elected prime minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto. Her sons Mir Murtaza and Shahnawaz and her daughter, two-time prime minister Benazir Bhutto, are buried in the same compound.
Begum Bhutto’s only surviving progeny, Sanam Bhutto, arrived at the Sukkur Airport half an hour after the plane carrying Begum Bhutto’s body arrived from Dubai, where she passed away on Sunday.
Sanam was accompanied by her sister Benazir’s husband, President Asif Ali Zardari, and children Bilawal, Bakhtawar and Aseefa Bhutto-Zardari.
Interior Minister Rehman Malik also accompanied them, while Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani landed shortly at the airport with a group of federal ministers, including Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar and Defence Minister Ahmed Mukhtar.
After a hurried guard of honour at the airport, Begum Bhutto’s coffin was taken by helicopter to Naudero House, where funeral prayers were scheduled to be held.
Funeral prayers and burial
Grief-stricken jiyalas and leaders of the Pakistan Peoples Party, including members of the party’s Central Executive Committee and Sindh ministers, descended upon Naudero House to pay their last respects to the woman who had kept the party together after the PPP founder was hanged by General Ziaul Haq’s regime.
Rivals and allies alike reached Naudero to attend the funeral prayers. A four-member delegation of Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz, comprising Ghouse Ali Shah, Iqbal Zafar Jhagra, Babu Sarfraz and Salim Zia, arrived at Naudero while a seven-member delegation of Muttahida Qaumi Movement, including Dr Farooq Sattar and Dr Sagheer Ahmed, was also present. An ambulance then took Nusrat Bhutto’s body to Garhi Khuda Bux, a 15-minute drive from Naudero, where her son-in-law Zardari and grandson Bilawal lowered it into the grave.
A number of attendees, including the prime minister, returned to Naudero House immediately after the burial while the president and his children stayed at the mausoleum, receiving mourners.
Former Sindh home minister Zulfiqar Mirza, whose recent public rift with the president and interior minister had made headlines, did not attend the funeral prayers but was present at the Garhi Khuda Bux mausoleum and later went to meet the president at Naudero House.
Funeral in absentia
But while Begum Bhutto successfully kept the party together after her husband’s death, she could not bring her family together in death.
Her older son Murtaza’s daughter Fatima Bhutto and wife Ghinwa Bhutto, who heads the PPP-Shaheed Bhutto faction, refused to attend the funeral and organised one in absentia at Al-Murtaza House, Larkana.
“No one informed us about her death,” Ghinwa told reporters. “My children even went to Dubai many times to meet their grandmother but how could PPP leaders arrange a meeting for them in Dubai since Zardari had held her hostage?”
Her son Zulfiqar Ali Junior, she said, was willing to attend the burial but couldn’t reach on time as police at Sukkur Airport created hurdles.
“She was my mother. It is extremely sad that her body will not be buried by the Bhutto family. It should first have been brought to 70 Clifton before being taken to Garhi Khuda Bux,” she said.
However, Presidential spokesperson Farhatullah Babar said that Zardari had invited Ghinwa and her children to Naudero House for the funeral. “There should be no politics over her death. Everyone regardless of political and family differences is welcome to participate,” he quoted the president as saying.
(Read more: Nusrat Bhutto – the woman, wife and mother)
(With additional reporting by Hafeez Tunio in Karachi and Sarfaraz Memon in Sukkur)
Edited by Zainab Imam
Published in The Express Tribune, October 25th, 2011.
COMMENTS (50)
Comments are moderated and generally will be posted if they are on-topic and not abusive.
For more information, please see our Comments FAQ
@Mohammad Ali Siddiqui:
Fatima Jinnah is/was and will ever remain mother of this nation. (PERIOD).
@GetRidOfFeudalPolitics:
She was the last politician in her family. Its the Zardaris in charge from now on.
RIP
@AZ: According to the TET"The iconic Begum Nusrat Bhutto, the former first lady who has been christened the Mother of Democracy"
For all the love and respect , a former first lady is not entitled to 10 days of mourning.
My request is not to make Pakistan look like a banana republic.
Alas!! The family tradition of death by unnatural means was not kept!! Or was it???
@Ali: And the headlines in Todays TET is that the Govt has set a target of 10% ( ooops that figure rings a bell)savings in expenses.
did anyone notice that a guy committed sucide in front of parliament house because of unemployment does anyone care that hundreds of labourers are starving becuase thier industry is shut due to lack of electricity, does anyone care that hundreds of people have lost thier lifes in target killing in karachi and does anyone care that the gas will be shut this winter and our economy and industury have to face tough time again
@Naila: When Life is politicised death will be !
From what I hear she was a good woman. However I cant wait to see the last of her family in PK politics.
@Mohammad Ali Siddiqui: Fatima Jinnah is the mother of this nation....
Her Funeral has costed millions to the Taxpayer. Sad but true.
@Pundit. She did hold important positions in the 70s. I will just end my note on this.
Rest In Peace Mrs. Bhutto. No one, i mean no one in Pakistan can even comprehend what she went through. 34 years of torment is enough to shake the very belief in humanity, yet she did not sway.
This is just an example of the lengths people will go to for power. Even if it destroys their whole family. It's a drug. Let's not make martyrs out of these people. Our brave soldiers protecting our borders, they die for our country - not politicians.
@Ali Tanoli: Agreed about your emotional feeling. But what difference does it make if it burned, or buried, or throwen into sea or into space. After all it is a dead and lifeless body.
Jung reported that three planes landed in Sukkur earlier. One plane arrived in from Dubai carrying the body of Begum Bhutto, the second plane was carrying President Zardari, his children, Interior Minister Rehman Malik, Federal Minister for Power Raja Pervez Ashraf, Senator Babar Awan, Religious Affairs Minister Khursheed Shah and Begum Nusrat’s daughter Sanam Bhutto, while the third plane was carrying Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani.
so much waste of jet fuel :(
@Naila: Have I gone rather blind and deaf? Which politics? It has been done the way a Muslim Sindhis do.
I really feel sorry for her having been completely ignored and forgotten for last 17 years during which time she remained terminally sick in Dubai. Nobody had stopped Ghinwa, sanam, or Asif Zardari,or Bilawal to look after her. Another death being politicized.
@Zingo
Cremation is very environment unfriendly. First you have to cut a whole tree or half a large tree to cremate one human being. Second the smoke harms the environment third the place where cremation occurs cannot be used for any agricultural purposes.
On the contrary with Burial, no trees are cut..in fact there are many trees in graveyards. Also the human body mixes with the soil increasing the nutrients of the soil.
Also if 7 billion humanbeings were to be cremated, you will have to cut off 7 billion trees..what a great loss to the planet earth considering that trees produce oxygen!
Hence our Creator has instructed us to be environmentally friendly.
Back to the topic, may ALLAH grant Begum Nusrat Bhutto paradise.
@Imran: Cremating was not an option in Saudi Arabia in ancient times for the simple reason there were no trees to burn in a desert environment. (Wood was really a scarce item). With the advent of modern technology like electricity switching to cremation makes sense. Cremating kills all the infection (most of the virus don't get killed by burying) and doesn't consume land for burial grounds.
If 7 billion people taking up 2 feet X 6 feet of burial ground each, it would have a devastating impact in terms of the land that is lost for burial grounds. BTW cremation is not the only way Hindus follow, there are many sects within Hindus who follow burial as well.
But whatever, may the soul of Mrs Begum Bhutto rest in peace....
@Zarmeena Ikram Babar: Well it doesn't really make any sense to what Zingo has to say. But it certainly makes sense in country which treats minorities like a piece of dirt given the fact that Mrs. Bhutto was a minority Shia by birth.
"When a country becomes a family business, shutting down the shop upon a death in the family is to be expected" - Ali Moin Nawazish
It was very very sad news for me. I shall offer Fateha Khawani after tomorrow after the burial of the Mother of Pakistan and our beloved great PPP's Quaid-e-Awam Shaheed Zulfikar Ali Bhutto's wife on her sorrowful demise.
What is the basis of a 10 day official mourning in Pakistan? She did not hold any official post.
First of all, condolences to the family for the pass away of the lady who lost her husband, two sons and the daughter. The democracy whatever the shape in it we have, this family had contribution to it.
I should not derail this discussion into politics but @Saima, hats off that you still say her son-in-law has done lot better to Pakistan and its people. You are right and yes he and his government has contributed a lot by increasing the sufferings of common people in Pakistan. So please let this discussion focus on the sad demise of Begum Nusrat Bhutto...
MIR
As a mother whose children were slaughtered one by one by the rogue elements ( everyone knows who they are ) of this land of pure , our deepest condolence on the demise of this lady who braved unafthomable agony and pain on the loss of her children .
We have severe differences with Peoples party and with late Benazir or Murtaza but it is altogether inhuman to witness Zulfiqar Bhutto ,Shanawaz , Murtaza and Benazir eliminated one by one by the "mighty and invisible force " (we all know who ) , never to be unearthed , never to be brought to justice .
Will there be any justice ever ? Ms.Nusrat Bhutto ,no matter who or what she was , had the right ,as a mother to see atleast the murderers of her children brought to justice .
RIP Mrs. Bhutto . May you be bestowed with eternal peace against the inhuman mortal suffering you went through in this life .
@zingo: May the 180 million Muslims of Pakistan remind you that burial is not a Hindu ritual. By calling it a Hindu practice, you are insulting all the Pakistanis. Please leave the land-of-the-pure pure, and take your version of Islam back to Saudi Arab; we reject your adulteration.
@Naila: her Son-in-Law has served already a lot for betterment of Pakistan, what else you are asking for ?
May Allah grant her peace in jannat - Ameen
She truly deserve this! RIP Great lady!!
May God bless your soul Amin
@ zingo please get a life -do you really think it is the right time to relate flowers with some religious traditions?
I wonder when will we out-grow our restrained minds and absurd sense of questioning!
She was just like mother for millions of Pakistanis.
A great loss to the nation and to people of Pakistan.
May Al-Mighty Allah rest her soul in peace. Ameen.
Using flowers for either worshiping or showing respect is a Hindu ritual. I wonder why they follow this in the so called land of pure....