March 11, 2008	Tuesday	Rabi-ul-Awwal 2, 1429

RAWALPINDI, March 10: Preoccupied with his political engagements, Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari on Monday again failed to come to Liaquat Bagh, where former prime minister Benazir Bhutto was assassinated, and instead sent his sister Dr Faryal Talpur to visit the place and condole with the family members of the party workers killed in the incident.

When Ms Talpur accompanied by PPP Punjab chapter secretary information Farzana Raja and member CEC Qazi Sultan reached the venue, only five local office-bearers of the party, prominent among them naib nazim Dhoke Ratta Nasir Mir, were there to receive her.

Ms Talpur had not even brought any wreath to lay on the big portrait of Ms Bhutto, a symbolic gesture practised by every PPP leader while visiting the place.

After offering Fateha, Ms Talpur decided to personally meet the family members of the five party workers killed along with Ms Bhutto. But when she left the spot, she was accompanied by only six party workers - Nasir Mir, Akhtar Iqbal Khwaja, Iqtidar Ali Shah, Tauqeer Abbasi (president PSF), Banaras Chaudhry and Zulfiqar Ahsan Awan.

Ms Talpur, Farzana Raja and Qazi Sultan also felt the mass absence of party workers and the elected representatives who had been informed about the visit. Party workers say the popularity graph of Mr Zardari was falling fast after he sidelined Amin Fahim as a nominee for the post of prime minister and did not visit Liaquat Bagh despite repeated invitations.

Ms Talpur met the family members of those killed in the incident and condoled with their children and wives living in the congested and underprivileged locality of Dhoke Ratta and offered them a meagre amount of Rs50,000 each. The government had given Rs300,000 to each family of those killed in the tragedy.