Nusrat Bhutto buried in Garhi Khuda Buksh amidst call for mourning

KARACHI: Begum Nusrat Bhutto, the former first lady and mother of former prime minister Benazir Bhutto, was buried in Garhi Khuda Buksh on Monday.

She was buried next to her husband, founder of the Pakistan Peoples Party, Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto, in the family graveyard in Naudero.

She is survived by her only living child Sanam Bhutto.

It may be mentioned that her elder son Murtaza was killed in a police shootout outside the family house in Karachi in 1996. Her other son Shahnawaz was found murdered in an apartment in France and her daughter Benazir was assassinated in December 2007.

Her political career began when she was elected to the National Assembly twice and served as cabinet member in her daughter Benazir Bhutto’s government in the 1990s. She rose to political prominence in the late 1970s and early 1980s, when she led protests and demonstrations against the military dictatorship that had overthrown her husband’s government.Nusrat Bhutto withdrew from public life in the mid-1990s, particularly after the death of her son Mir Murtaza Bhutto in 1996.

She was suspected of suffering from cancer since 1982, and had also been suffering from Alzheimer’s disease for the last several years. She left Pakistan in the same year for medical treatment.

Earlier in the day, her body was flown by helicopter to Naudero for burial after being presented the “Guard of Honour” in Sukkur.

Begum Nusrat Bhutto died at a hospital in Dubai on Sunday afternoon at the age of 82.

President Asif Ali Zardari flew to Dubai from his official trip to Jordan to escort her body to Sukkur on Monday on a chartered plane. Begum Nusrat Bhutto’s daughter and only surviving child, Sanam Bhutto, and grandchildren, including Pakistan Peoples Party chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, Bakhtawar and Aseefa also flew to Dubai from London to accompany the body.