STRAWS of paddy were spread everywhere in and out Garhi Khuda Bakhsh, a famous town of Larkana district. Villagers were engaged in their daily customary work. A newly built colony having 99 A, B, C type quarters, all houses were similar to huts of poor people of other villages of Sindh. Streets and sewerage lines were covered with dust. And some slogans were marked on mud made walls of a few houses in favour of the conscientious objector of the PPP the late Mir Murtaza Bhutto, scion of former PM Zulfikar Ali Bhutto. This was the gloomy picture of the town, which was named after the great grand father of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto.
While watching the pathetic state of the town I, for a while thought that it may not be the hometown of the Bhutto family, which has remained in the corridors of power either directly or indirectly for the last for almost 75 years.
The town is located at a distance of about three kilometres from Naudero. I was extremely astonished to see pathetic state of the town, which carries many titles as an ancestral hometown as well as a last resting-place of a world known political figure like Z.A. Bhutto, who held portfolios of federal minister, foreign minister, president of Pakistan. It also happens to be an ancestral town of the former Prime Minister of Pakistan and daughter of Z.A. Bhutto, Benazir. Sir Shahnawaz Bhutto, father of Bhutto also remained a member of Legislative Assembly of Bombay presidency.
It has a population of around twenty thousand comprising of Bhutto, Leghari, Syed, Shaikh and Chandio clans. Primary and secondary schools for girls and boys, rural health centre, post office and a vocational school are the only gifts of the Bhuttos to the town.
Shahid Hussain Bhutto, the present Nazim of union council, Pir Bakhsh Bhutto known as Imdad Ali Khan and Sikander Ali Khan are permanent residents of this town. At present, there is no sign of their haveli in it, as it was demolished with the aim to merger the plot area with that of the shrine of Z.A. Bhutto, who was hanged on April 04, 1979. Now the shrine is spread on three acres.
Its garden is also spread on two acres of land. People, who were used to live around the under-construction shrine of Z.A. Bhutto were provided newly built quarters in the town by Benazir Bhutto and their plots were made a part of the shrine.
Construction work on three-floor shrine started in 1993, after 14 years of his death. But only one floor has been completed so far. It has seven staircases, two inside and five from outside. It also has two halls, one for males and other for females. Its dome, which might be similar to the Mazar-e-Quaid in Karachi, will be set up on third floor.
Graves of Z.A. Bhutto, his father Sir Shahnawaz, mother Khurshid Begum, his brother Sikander Ali Khan and his sons Mir Murtaza and Shahnawaz and other family members are situated inside the building. The grave of Z.A. Bhutto is separate to the others. While the graves of the junior Shahnawaz and Mir Murtaza are close to each other at a distance of hardly 20 feet from their father. Graves of Sir Shahnawaz, his wife Khurshid Begum and his son Sikander are located near to each other in the same building.
Around one thousand visitors come here daily to pay homage to their “Shaheed Baba”. Some people do believe that he (ZA Bhutto) fulfils their wishes like a pir or darvish. After fulfilment of their wishes and hopes, the people sacrifice their goats as a sukha or bass at the shrine. It is said that people of the area while returning from the shrines of Shah Abdul Latif Bhittai and Lal Shahbaz Qalander come here to pay homage to ZA Bhutto and his efforts to for Pakistan.
It is interesting to note that there are two separate platform in the grounds of the shrine; one for Benazir and other one for late Mir Murtaza Bhutto to address the public, who also had one ideological base of the ‘Bhuttoism’. On the contrary, there was no residential place for both of them. During their visit of the town, they, instead of sitting here, only listened to the problems of the villagers by standing there for sometime and then Benazir proceeded to Naudero and Murtaza to Al-Murtaza in Larkana.
“When Bhutto Sahib used to come here to pray at the graves of his parents and other family members, he after prayer used to sit in the bungalow of his brother Sikander Ali Khan and then inquired the locals about their problems,” informed Abdul Ghafoor Leghari, a servant of the Bhuttos. Today no house of the Bhutto family exists in the town.
Garhi Khuda Bakhsh urgently needs an intermediate college for girls and boys, a library, museum, auditorium, computer centre with the access of Internet and other such facilities.
STRAWS of paddy were spread everywhere in and out Garhi Khuda Bakhsh, a famous town of Larkana district. Villagers were engaged in their daily customary work. A newly built colony having 99 A, B, C type quarters, all houses were similar to huts of poor people of other villages of Sindh. Streets and sewerage lines were covered with dust. And some slogans were marked on mud made walls of a few houses in favour of the conscientious objector of the PPP the late Mir Murtaza Bhutto, scion of former PM Zulfikar Ali Bhutto. This was the gloomy picture of the town, which was named after the great grand father of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto.
