It was 4th anniversary of Benazir Bhutto’s assassination. As the customary serves devotees visit their respective constituencies and leave along with a convoy to pay homage at Garhi Khuda Baksh, where Mohatarma’s body rests while her soul resides in hearts of her aficionados.

The journey along with my cousin, Morial Shah (a foreign services student at Georgetown University) and aunt, Anita Shah (an activist and a housewife) was long, cold and edifying. Filled with political discussions and repetitive crunching into oranges and Larkana amrood, (Larkana’s guavas) it was an enjoyable expedition. Reaching Khairpur, my political and childhood hometown brought in surge of contentment the very night when the ‘morning of homage’ was to follow. With updates of an expected 12,000 people convoy turn up from Khairpur district and arrangements for morning, the flight for sleep took rest.

Early morning of the day of 27th December, 2011 marked a day of remembrance, mourning, hope and devotion. As soon as cars left Khairpur, a swarm of people pressed themselves to the car, throwing rose petals and chanting slogans of ‘Nafisa Shah’ (MNA and daughter of CM Sindh), who brought the convoy, and chants of ‘Qaim Ali Shah’ (Chief Minister, Sindh) followed. The slogans started gathering momentum with PPP flags, PPP songs and PPP banners as cavalcades consisting of cars, wagons buses and other vehicles kept joining. Nafisa Shah slid out of the roof window, beaming and waving at the crowd while crowd showered her with rose petals. The festive occasion marks significance of the legacy and the day itself. Some people dancing some wiping away tears. It was an unimaginable course of indulgence of emotions. It was all in the air, felt by everyone. For all the people there, it was not just the ‘Bhutto’ name but all of these emotions, devotion, hope, disease of optimism and faith.

The route to Larkana from Khairpur takes about ninety minutes, however with the traditional sacraments it got elongated to three hour journey. When the vehicles of about 800 reached at Garhi Khuda Baksh, the entrance was so crowded that everyone had to get out of cars for a mile walk towards the sepulcher. The party workers formed a circle for Nafisa Shah, her family members and women while they made the walk. This is when chants of ‘PPP jo killo, Khairpur zillo’ started along with ‘Jeay Bhutto’ slogans. The helicopter of the President hovered over the skies and the President waved at us when the chants got louder.

With a five minute rest at the camps reserved for different constituencies, the convoy went up to join the Jalsa (political gathering). The crowd was so huge that the circle could not stop people from bumping into us. Foreign journalists eager for closer look tiptoed and hurried to catch every detail of us gliding past them forward from the crowd, maybe not knowing about it grew their curiosity. Past the iron wires, guarded by police officials only some of us could go beyond and go towards the official Ministerial enclosure as for security purposes, while the party workers stayed behind with the press and devotees.

It was sunset, the sunlight gleamed at us, CM was just closing on his speech and the President took up the stage for his address. Exhilarated by his diligence, serenity and attitude, positivity took over by the masses. Chants of ‘Ik Zardari, sab pey bhaari’ (Zardari outweigh the rest) filled the air. As always charmed by his calmness and optimistic nature he has always been admired as a personality, but this time a leader spoke to the people. Criticism kept aside, his positivity nothing but confounds all. To quote, ‘smile, nothing annoys enemies more’ fits in impeccably.

Sun immersed in the skies and so did the words, leaving its people filled with joy for the future and sorrow over the loss bore four years ago, 2007. The convoy now went inside to visit Mohatarma’s grave to pray for her soul. The mausoleum was so jam packed that finding place closer to her grave took considerable amount of time. At her grave, people covered it with chadors (cloth) and flowers, wiping off tears, holding onto the grave and reciting Quranic verses. It was an overwhelming experience to see people from suited to worn out attire displaying their homage to the great leader for her sacrifice and love for the country. On the en route back to Khairpur the traffic outside the sepulcher took about two hours to get out.

The experience was just ‘too good’ to be told.
The entire account has been penned down just for the sake of experience. It’s neither to enforce opinions or an invitation for bad words. It has been penned down to describe how it was. Readers may have differing opinions or may look down on rural-politico cultural setup, but accept it or not, this is how it is. All cultural ways need to be respected; someone outside the culture will never be able to provide a just suggestion or criticism. The masses which are larger than urban life are not hoodwinked, neither paid by the agencies. It is utterly out of reverence and following, which is not pledged for a person, leader, place or an era, it’s the people.

Last but not the least; ‘Jeay Bhutto’!

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