Another Bhutto

Nusrat Bhutto, the First Lady of Pakistan from 1973 to 1977 and subsequently a torch bearer of democracy during the darkest period of Zia’s martial law, has passed away. She will be remembered as a lady with unusual courage and dignity. In 1977, she had to bear the shock of the sudden overthrow of ZAB’s government and his subsequent arrest. With the young and inexperienced Benazir forced to spend the next eighteen months in and out of house arrest, Nusrat Bhutto was the only person who could keep the PPP united. Despite enormous pressures that she was subjected to by the military ruler, she took up the daunting challenge of rallying a leaderless and demoralised party around her. She fought for her husband’s life from court to court at the same time.

Nusrat Bhutto bore the judicial murder of her husband with fortitude. Shortly after she developed cancer. Despite being in bad shape she continued to lead the PPP. Benazir was finally put it prison by Zia in 1981 where she was kept in solitary confinement. This was another cause of worry for the mother. Without losing nerve, Nusrat Bhutto helped forge an alliance of the opposition parties for the restoration of democracy. Being a far-sighted woman she even agreed to include in the MRD, which came into existence in 1982, some of the very parties which had paved the way for the ouster of ZAB. She had to leave for Britain in 1982 in a serious condition to undergo treatment for cancer. She was in London when she received another shock. Her younger son Shahnawaz Bhuto had died in mysterious circumstances in Nice, France.

There was a short period of happiness in her post-1977 life when Benazir became the Prime Minister, appointing her senior minister in the federal cabinet. The brief period of relative comfort was cut short by the killing of her second son Mir Murtaza Bhutto in Karachi. This proved to be the last proverbial straw that breaks the camel’s back. Her health started declining and she was taken to Dubai. A little later, she was attacked by Alzheimer’s. She was in Dubai when Benazir was killed in a suicide attack. Perhaps, she remained unaware of the latest tragedy in her life. The courageous lady breathed her last at the age of 82.