Back in Pakistan to Bury Brother : Thousands See Bhutto’s Daughter End Her Exile

Thousands of Pakistanis--peasants from the Indus River farmlands and black-garbed members of the outlawed Pakistan People’s Party--gathered in scorching heat Wednesday to witness the return from exile of Benazir Bhutto, leader of the Bhutto political dynasty, the main challenge to the country’s martial-law regime.

Benazir Bhutto, 31, spent the last 18 months in self-imposed exile in London after several years of house arrest and jail in Pakistan after the 1979 execution of her father, Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, by the regime of Gen. Zia ul-Haq. Her return Wednesday was to supervise the funeral and burial of her youngest brother, Shahnawaz Bhutto, 26.

The brother, a leader in Al Zulfikar (The Sword), a terrorist organization formed to avenge the execution of his father, was found dead in the living room of his apartment in Cannes, France, last month. French officials have yet to announce the cause of death, but Bhutto family members contend that he was poisoned.

The funeral took place in a region where little has changed since civilization came to the Indus River Valley more than 4,000 years ago at nearby Mohenjo Daro. The people still use the same kind of bullock carts and riverboats used by their ancient forebears.

The Bhuttos have been feudal landlords here for hundreds of years, and the death of any Bhutto is, to these people, like the death of a prince or a lord. And in this steamy, rice-growing part of Pakistan, there was obvious grief Wednesday at the death of the youngest child of the late prime minister.

However, the main order of business Wednesday was politics. The red, green and black flags of the Pakistan People’s Party adorned many walls and flew from rooftops. One party flag was draped over the coffin before it was lowered into the gray clay soil of the family cemetery at Ghari Khuda Bux.

Party workers marched into town from the train station chanting slogans against President Zia, calling him a “dog” and “son of a dog” among other things.

Other party workers gave reporters inflated estimates of the size of the crowd as it swelled into the cricket stadium for mass prayers. Accurate crowd measurement was difficult, for the extreme heat repeatedly drove people into the shadows. Several dozen men fainted in the 100-degree-plus heat.

Even enemies of the Bhuttos in Larkana saw the size of the crowd as an important measure of lingering Bhutto power in Pakistan after eight years of martial law under Zia. Recent democratic reforms by Zia have cut into the strength of the opposition.

‘Anything Less Is Average’

“If you find 100,000 people, that means it is a good funeral,” said Shah Mohammed Pasha Khuhro, scion of a rival landlord family here and member of the new Parliament elected under a no-party system devised by Zia. “Anything less than 100,000 is just average.”

It is doubtful that 100,000 people showed up here Wednesday. However, Benazir Bhutto said she was pleased with the turnout, although the Harvard-educated political leader denied any political motive for her trip.

“Frankly, I am just too heartbroken at the moment to look beyond the needs of my brother and performing my duties as a sister,” she said. However, when asked later about the crowd that surged outside her family home here, she said:

“I always knew the people of our country share with us our agonies. I think there was an overwhelming turnout today beyond what many people would have expected.”

Traditional Mourning Time

She said she planned to remain in Pakistan for at least 40 days, the traditional period of mourning after a death. The 40-day period is also traditionally known as a time for making alliances and consolidating political power.

Benazir Bhutto said she initially hesitated to return to Pakistan after her brother’s death because she had been told that she would be arrested at the airport upon landing. “Confronting a martial-law government always has its risks,” she said.

She went to the family cemetery to choose the plot--under a small neem tree near a wall about 30 feet to the right of her father’s gravesite. However, as a woman in a strict Islamic country, she was unable to attend the burial itself and remained with a group of women in the family home.

Despite her fears, there was very little government military or police activity in the Larkana area Wednesday. Although extra troops were brought in for security reasons, they remained well away from the funeral crowd.

Avoiding a Scene

The Zia government may have been wise to avoid making a scene at this time. As one of this town’s oldest residents, Abdur Razak Bhatti, 82, a former schoolmaster, said:

“We are not sophisticated about politics here. However, what weighs upon our heart is important. When a man dies, love for him becomes double.”

Bhatti, who has known four generations of Bhuttos here, remembered the outpouring of affection for Zulfikar Ali Bhutto after he was hanged April 4, 1979.

“His hanging stirred up the people anew,” Bhatti said. “They loved him more after his hanging than before.”