Some beating their chests, others reciting the Quran, Benazir Bhutto's supporters massed at her tomb on Sunday, the eve of a general election they pray her party will win so her legacy will live on.
Chanting "Long live Benazir, long live Bhutto", mothers with babes-in-arms to farmers to workers of Pakistan People's Party sprinkled rose petals on her tomb in the family mausoleum in her native town of Garhi Khuda Bakhsh.
Giant portraits of Benazir hang inside, gazing down at women huddled in a vivid rainbow of shalwar kameez around the spot where she was buried after her assassination on December 27 as she campaigned for a third term as prime minister.
"We are still mourning. We are still weeping," lamented 40-year-old landowner Zulfikar Ali. "She was our queen, the empress of a nation, of the world, of the whole of Asia."
Ali had driven 125 miles (200 km) to visit the tomb to pay his respects, and would allow himself 30 minutes of prayer before setting off to return to his 200-acre (80-hectare) land holding, where he farms sugar cane, wheat, cotton and lemons.
"We are helping her by putting votes for (her party symbol) the arrow so that her mission can be achieved, her goal of democracy, her goal of ridding unemployment and helping poor people."
Sindh, home to about 30 million people, is Benazir's political heartland, an agricultural province that produces mainly rice and wheat and is home to many living in poverty, earning as little as $16 a month and buckling under high inflation and the rising price of staples.
DYNASTY LIVES ON:
Benazir's widower, Asif Ali Zardari, is leading her party through Monday's contest, but while the PPP is seen polling more seats than the two other main parties, it is expected to be a hung parliament.
And that would likely end in a coalition between two of the three main parties, which include the party of former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and the party that backs an increasingly unpopular President Pervez Musharraf, who could find his career in the balance.
Some party stalwarts in Sindh balk at a coalition. "They shouldn't form any coalition! The PPP must form their own government," said housewife Meema Mahesar, clutching her year-old-son, one of 12 children in tow.
"In every house, in every village, in every province, the message of Benazir Bhutto will continue!", she added, standing barefoot on the marble floor of the still unfinished mausoleum.
Scaffolding pokes out of the structure's onion domes, staircases are not yet complete. Benazir's grave for now is simply covered with a green, red and black party flag.
Next to her grave stands the white marble tomb of her father, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, Pakistan's first popularly elected prime minister, who was overthrown by the military in 1977 and executed two years later.
Outside, souvenir sellers do a brisk trade. Stalls sell laminated photographs of Benazir and calendars bearing her portrait. Some sell CDs and tapes of party songs.
There are also badges, rosettes, and a cacophony of Benazir's speeches blares out on cassette recorders. "More and more people are coming to purchase pictures," said 22-year-old Ali Khan, who set up stalls with three of his brothers outside the mausoleum after Benazir's assassination in a gun and suicide-bomb attack.
"When she was alive, there were job opportunities," he said. "Since her assassination, we now do this. Let's see what the future brings."
Comments
Comments are closed.