Thousands of mourners led by President Asif Ali Zardari turned out Monday for the burial of former Pakistani first lady Nusrat Bhutto, the mother of assassinated prime minister Benazir Bhutto.
The widow of Pakistan’s first democratically elected leader, Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto, and mother of Pakistan’s twice elected prime minister Benazir Bhutto, she died aged 82 after a long illness in Dubai on Sunday.
Her body was flown home, where Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) officials and supporters attended the funeral at the Bhuttos’ ancestral seat of Naudero.
Her body was laid next to that of her husband, Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto, the PPP founder who was hanged by the dictatorship of General Zia-ul-Haq in 1979.
The PPP-led government has ordered a 10-day period of national mourning with Monday a public holiday, cancelling all his engagements.
Nusrat Bhutto was several times elected a member of the Pakistani parliament, but her life was scarred by personal tragedy and political difficulties.
Aside from her husband, she also outlived three of her four children. Her son Murtaza was shot dead in Karachi and her son Shahnawaz died in France.
She became chairman of the PPP from her husband’s death in 1979 until her daughter Benazir took over in 1984.
Under Zia, she was put under house arrest and thrown into jail, then spent several years in exile after being allowed to go abroad for medical treatment.
Benazir was assassinated in a gun and suicide attack at an election campaign rally in the garrison city of Rawalpindi in late 2007.
Her widower and Nusrat’s son-in-law, Zardari then led the PPP to election victory in February 2008.
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