Pakistan Views

The peasants who gather round a life-size poster of Benazir Bhutto believe it will help resolve a tribal dispute and her party hopes such faith will translate into millions of votes. The martyred Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) chairperson has become akin to a saint among people in her ancestral town of Larkana, ascribed with powers that most other candidates in next week’s elections can only dream of Larkana community leader Akhtar Mahoto said people not only bring verses by saints from the mystical Sufi strain of Islam to resolve local wrangles, now “the portrait of Benazir is also added because she commands such respect.” “At a recent meeting the participants agreed to settle a long-standing dispute with a pledge, before Benazir’s image, that they would not fight again,” Mahoto told AFP. “We consider these personalities as witness to our pledge and then swear on the Holy Quran to remain committed to our pledge,” he said. Benazir did not always have the same unifying power in life, as her martyrdom at a political rally in Rawalpindi on December 27 showed. But the two-term former prime minister nevertheless remained one of the only truly national leaders in a country riven by deep ethnic, religious, sectarian and political faultlines. Her Pakistan People’s Party is now counting on her to unite the country’s electorate against President Pervez Musharraf and also overcome some internal strife. Famously superstitious in life, Benazir’s new status in death chimes well with the folksy beliefs of the dustbowl farmers and warring clans in rural southern Sindh province, where she spent large parts of her childhood. It is also where she was buried after her martyrdom and her grave in the Bhutto family mausoleum in Ghari Khuda Bakhsh, has become a virtual shrine. During recent ceremonies to mark the 40th and final day of mourning for Benazir, women brought newborn babies to the five-domed tomb for her blessing. “This family of martyrs has always helped us. We believe their blessings for my grandson will make him successful,” said Shahida Bibi, 50, carrying her two-week-old grandson. Martyrs are certainly part of the growing Bhutto mythology. Benazir is buried alongside her father, ex-prime minister Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto, who was hanged in 1979, while her two brothers lie nearby. “I have watched people visit Shaheed Baba’s (Zulfiqar Bhutto’s) grave for years but after Benazir’s martyrdom this trend has become stronger,” said Karim Bakhsh Bhutto, an unrelated resident living near the tomb. “Benazir was a hope for us when she was alive and many of her followers have not yet lost that hope,” he said. Nor has her Pakistan People’s Party. “The sympathy element is very strong,” PPP spokesman Farhatullah Babar told