Benazir Bhutto was buried in Garhi Khuda Baksh, a village in Larkana. Her coffin this time, though, was draped in the PPP flag. Only a day after Id (December 21), she had confided in her confidants her irrepressible urge to visit the family graveyard in Garhi. She arrived there on December 22, and sat next to her father's grave for two hours, reciting verses from the Quran and later strewing red rose petals on the graves of her father and two brothers. She had buried all three. Six days later, she has joined them, leaving behind a bed-ridden mother in Dubai, too sick to even have a last glimpse of her daughter's face. The spot where she had sat down was the one that was chosen for her burial. A constant companion of her father when he was alive, she has now joined him in death, their adjacent graves a testimony to the tragic story of Pakistan's premier political dynasty which sacrificed itself to fulfill the democratic ideals of Mohammed Ali Jinnah.
Pakistan found it difficult to come to terms with the death of its leader. For more than 20 hours before she was laid to rest, Pakistanis from Khyber to Karachi not only shed copious tears but also went on an angry rampage, targeting symbols of the state. Banks, offices trucks, cars and trains were torched. People in rural Sindh switched off lights to mourn Benazir's death. In Lahore, posters and flags of the Pakistan Muslim League (Q) were set ablaze, venting their anger against the party which had been bitterly opposed to Benazir's return and which had bolstered President Pervez Musharraf's military rule. Shoot-at-sight orders were issued in several towns.
As Pakistan teeters on the brink of a precipice, nobody is asking the pressing political questions: Will Musharraf exploit the situation to reimpose the Emergency? Will he postpone the January 8 elections? Instead, people here are asking: Will Pakistan survive? Has the battle for its soul been won by Islamic militants and a dictator? Benazir's personality symbolised the unity of Pakistan; her party, like the Congress in India, welded the nation together, through its presence in every corner of the country. In a stirring front page editorial, A Dream Snuffed Out, The Dawn wrote, "It is a tribute to the tenacity of the politician par excellence that she kept her father's political legacy alive in a male-dominated society. He had championed the popular causes and given a sense of dignity to the common man. Benazir Bhutto had the mettle to do the same. The repercussions of her murder will continue to unfold for months, even years. What is clear is that Pakistan's political landscape will never be the same having lost one of its finest daughters."
The State, indeed, will have to countenance the wrath of PPP workers, who are lovingly called jiyalas, or diehard supporters. Their anger knows no limits, they know that anti-democratic forces have connived to kill their leader. They want justice, they desire to fulfil their leader's dream of re-forging Pakistan's soul in the crucible of democracy and moderate Islam. It is their anger the State should fear.
As of now, the election of January 8 has lost its meaning. Nawaz Sharif has already declared that his party will boycott it. He was among the first politicians to reach the hospital to pay homage to the departed leader. With the PPP calling for a 40-day mourning, it is debatable whether its leaders will want to contest at the hustings. Caretaker PM Mohammedmian Soomro has declared that elections will be held on schedule, but most Pakistanis here would read insidious intentions into such an ill-advised move. Pakistan needs time for its wounds to heal.
The PPP also needs to mull the leadership issue. Without a Bhutto at the helm, the party could well sink into the choppy waters of Pakistani politics. The problem is that Benazir's children are too young to lead it. There are other Bhuttos, like Benazir's niece and daughter of her brother Murtaza, Fatima. But she had been extremely critical of her aunt, even accusing her of killing Murtaza. Then there is Uncle Mumtaz Ali, who too had been stridently critical of Benazir for reaching out to the military. Sanam Bhutto is mother Nusrat's only child alive today. Husband Asif Ali Zardari is also a possible candidate for the top post, but he's a Bhutto only by virtue of his marriage with Benazir, though he had endeared himself to PPP workers by spending several years in prison. Benazir's death will, hopefully, make the Bhuttos close ranks and not destroy the PPP and—by implication—Pakistan.
