by Hasan Mansoor
How many Iranians one knows who are revered religiously in Pakistan without having any religious reasons! Begum Nusrat Bhutto is the only person whose name comes in the minds of all and sundry.
She was a dashing and gorgeous women whom people saw with utter admiration in sarees and modern outfits until her husband was hanged by General Zia, the sorcerer of darkness.
Zia’s policies to convert a pluralistic and tolerant society into a mob of fanatics forced the Bhutto ladies as well to compromise on their liberal outlook to stay with the people, the nest where party’s Phoenix is to be reborn.
That was the first sacrifice the Bhutto ladies rendered — the smallest of all, which started with Bhutto’s hanging and continued with the murders of Shahnawaz and Murtaza.
Benazir had to sacrifice her own life later, so miseries for Nusrat remained unbound and never stopping. Even, now when she has breathed her last, her death has further divided the estranged royal family.
Nusrat Ispahani was an Iranian from Kurdistan Province, daughter of a businessman who
settled in Karachi, British India before its partition. Nusrat met Zulfikar Ali Bhutto in Karachi where she became his second wife – in fact second to none as the events unfolded later proved.
A loving mother and perfect host had to enter the practical politics when her husband was opposed to Ayub Khan. He was jailed and persecuted that brought the first test of his wife’s skill to play as a capable alternative. This was her first stint as a politician, which most chroniclers forget.
She became the most powerful and charming First Lady till mid-1970s but that was just the beginning of a Shakespearian tragedy.
A tragedy allows one to find the strength within. She found it after General Zia’s coup, which was bloodless at the outset but proved to be the bloodiest of all dictatorial rules Pakistan was inflicted with by the men with the long boots.
She saw her husband tortured to death in a dark and filthy cell before being herself jailed along with daughter Benazir.
She received a head injury in the baton charge by Zia’s cronies at the Gaddafi Stadium in Lahore . That wound was not timely treated and most party elders said its lasting injurious effect on her gradually disabled her.
Young Shahnawaz Bhutto was found dead in an apartment in France, the reason of whose death is still a mystery.
She wanted to make elder son Murtaza Bhutto, the male heir of Bhutto dynasty, his husband’s political successor while Benazir was already the party’s co-chairperson, the party’s de facto chief.
The later events showed Murtaza’s political acumen was in huge contradistinction to his elder sister. Besides, Benazir had shown herself a national popular leader, while Murtaza had been unaware of how Pakistani politics had changed its nomenclature.
Quite spectacularly, the male-dominant Pakistani society loved Benazir the most, although Murtaza was Bhutto’s son – a man who is supposed to take charge of family affairs in this conservative Muslim country.
Nusrat Bhutto had proved herself a loving wife, a great political leader when the husband was judicially murdered, but now when the things had eased out a bit she turned herself what she originally was — a mother, who wanted to see her son touching the heights of glory.
She was the emotional force, besides other well known factors, which brought Mir Murtaza to Pakistan after 18 years of exile. Murtaza remained estranged to his sister after the homecoming and formed his own Peoples Party.
He hardly secured a seat for himself from Larkana, which, most voters and party cadres said, was a gift from his mother, who in person had gone all out to beg votes for him.
On Murtaza’s first visit to his father’s grave, she escaped a firing incident near Bhutto’s house in Larkana, Al-Murtaza, as Shahid Rind, a party jiyala, sustained bullets while covering her and died on the spot.
Nusrat Bhutto was pronounced physically dead on October 23, but she was emotionally and clinically dead on September 20, 1996, when Murtaza had been gunned down in a police encounter staged by the deep state. She lost everything she loved; her consciousness was the last asset she got deprived of. Alzheimer preyed on her in predetory proportions till she breathed her last.
Murtaza’s family blamed Benazir and then her spouse President Zardari of taking the old lady hostage — a blame the accused have always denied.
Insiders said even a known rights activist had tried to mediate between the two sides to allow Nusrat to live with the whole family, but to no avail.
Nusrat Bhutto was the last of Bhuttos who will be remembered for her close liaison with enthusiastic party workers, labourers, peasants and other poor segments of society. On many occasions she escaped narrowly from rains of bullets while taking part in workers’ rallies.
Workers of Musawat and Hilal-e-Pakistan newspapers — the former an Urdu and the latter a Sindhi newspaper and party’s erstwhile mouth organs — still recall fond memories of her who never rejected a demand made by the workers.
“The Bhuttos had always helped the poor and workers. They had always saved the institutions that benefited the poor,” a worker said.
She lived a vibrant life and died a passive death. Her death in remote environs, for sure, has enlivened the forgotten tracts that made a dictator’s apprentice the people’s darling and his grave the ultimate headquarters for the rulers to come.
October 2011
How many Iranians one knows who are revered religiously in Pakistan without having any religious reasons! Begum Nusrat Bhutto is the only person whose name comes in the minds of all and sundry.
She was a dashing and gorgeous women whom people saw with utter admiration in sarees and modern outfits until her husband was hanged by General Zia, the sorcerer of darkness.Zia’s policies to convert a pluralistic and tolerant society into a mob of fanatics forced the Bhutto ladies as well to compromise on their liberal outlook to stay with the people, the nest where party’s Phoenix is to be reborn.
That was the first sacrifice the Bhutto ladies rendered — the smallest of all, which started with Bhutto’s hanging and continued with the murders of Shahnawaz and Murtaza.
Benazir had to sacrifice her own life later, so miseries for Nusrat remained unbound and never stopping. Even, now when she has breathed her last, her death has further divided the estranged royal family.
Nusrat Ispahani was an Iranian from Kurdistan Province, daughter of a businessman who
settled in Karachi, British India before its partition. Nusrat met Zulfikar Ali Bhutto in Karachi where she became his second wife – in fact second to none as the events unfolded later proved.A loving mother and perfect host had to enter the practical politics when her husband was opposed to Ayub Khan. He was jailed and persecuted that brought the first test of his wife’s skill to play as a capable alternative. This was her first stint as a politician, which most chroniclers forget.
She became the most powerful and charming First Lady till mid-1970s but that was just the beginning of a Shakespearian tragedy.
A tragedy allows one to find the strength within. She found it after General Zia’s coup, which was bloodless at the outset but proved to be the bloodiest of all dictatorial rules Pakistan was inflicted with by the men with the long boots.
She saw her husband tortured to death in a dark and filthy cell before being herself jailed along with daughter Benazir.She received a head injury in the baton charge by Zia’s cronies at the Gaddafi Stadium in Lahore . That wound was not timely treated and most party elders said its lasting injurious effect on her gradually disabled her.
Young Shahnawaz Bhutto was found dead in an apartment in France, the reason of whose death is still a mystery.
She wanted to make elder son Murtaza Bhutto, the male heir of Bhutto dynasty, his husband’s political successor while Benazir was already the party’s co-chairperson, the party’s de facto chief.
The later events showed Murtaza’s political acumen was in huge contradistinction to his elder sister. Besides, Benazir had shown herself a national popular leader, while Murtaza had been unaware of how Pakistani politics had changed its nomenclature.Quite spectacularly, the male-dominant Pakistani society loved Benazir the most, although Murtaza was Bhutto’s son – a man who is supposed to take charge of family affairs in this conservative Muslim country.
Nusrat Bhutto had proved herself a loving wife, a great political leader when the husband was judicially murdered, but now when the things had eased out a bit she turned herself what she originally was — a mother, who wanted to see her son touching the heights of glory.
She was the emotional force, besides other well known factors, which brought Mir Murtaza to Pakistan after 18 years of exile. Murtaza remained estranged to his sister after the homecoming and formed his own Peoples Party.He hardly secured a seat for himself from Larkana, which, most voters and party cadres said, was a gift from his mother, who in person had gone all out to beg votes for him.
On Murtaza’s first visit to his father’s grave, she escaped a firing incident near Bhutto’s house in Larkana, Al-Murtaza, as Shahid Rind, a party jiyala, sustained bullets while covering her and died on the spot.
Nusrat Bhutto was pronounced physically dead on October 23, but she was emotionally and clinically dead on September 20, 1996, when Murtaza had been gunned down in a police encounter staged by the deep state. She lost everything she loved; her consciousness was the last asset she got deprived of. Alzheimer preyed on her in predetory proportions till she breathed her last.
Murtaza’s family blamed Benazir and then her spouse President Zardari of taking the old lady hostage — a blame the accused have always denied.
Insiders said even a known rights activist had tried to mediate between the two sides to allow Nusrat to live with the whole family, but to no avail.
Nusrat Bhutto was the last of Bhuttos who will be remembered for her close liaison with enthusiastic party workers, labourers, peasants and other poor segments of society. On many occasions she escaped narrowly from rains of bullets while taking part in workers’ rallies.“The Bhuttos had always helped the poor and workers. They had always saved the institutions that benefited the poor,” a worker said.
She lived a vibrant life and died a passive death. Her death in remote environs, for sure, has enlivened the forgotten tracts that made a dictator’s apprentice the people’s darling and his grave the ultimate headquarters for the rulers to come.
October 2011
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