It could not have been easy for her — a widow, not from Pakistan, and the estranged sister-in-law of Benazir Bhutto. Yet Ghinwa Bhutto, the wife of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto’s assassinated eldest son, Murtaza, continues to run the party her husband set up almost two decades ago.
The Pakistan Peoples Party-Shaheed Bhutto (PPP-SB) was always up against it, even when Murtaza was alive. However, after Murtaza’s assassination in 1996, Ghinwa not only continues to run the party against the odds but also seems highly motivated.
“I am fighting to win,” she says boldly, rubbishing claims that PPP-SB does not care about winning. (Ghinwa will herself be squaring off in the polls against President Asif Ali Zardari’s sister, Faryal Talpur.) “I think I will win,” she says, “but even if she [Talpur] does, it will not be by the people; she will win by cheating… Regardless of the result, we are going to have a beautiful fight,” says Ghinwa, with a hint of excitement in her voice.
She says that she stands against those who represent a class that is benefiting from the present system of governance which, according to Ghinwa, has resulted in the total collapse of society. If victorious, Ghinwa says her initial goal will be to decentralise the system of police and justice: “The police will become accountable to the people.”
Optimism aside, the grim reality remains that Ghinwa is considered a political failure. “She is in politics only because of her husband who would have never made it against his sister,” says a journalist, echoing general opinion. Furthermore, Ghinwa’s only political headline to date has been an incident involving the speaker of the recently dissolved Sindh Assembly, seasoned PPP leader Nisar Khuhro during the last elections. (She clarifies: “It looked like I slapped him [but I didn’t]. Young workers got angry and slapped him.”)
Win or not, Ghinwa is clear-headed when it comes to her party’s larger ideology. “[Zulfikar Ali] Bhutto started something new, he spoke about class politics, about the clash between the rich and poor,” she points out. “We want what Bhutto gave us, what he promised us: freedom, justice, sovereignty.”
Ghinwa realises the pitfalls of working the system with the Bhutto name, especially since she and her children have repeatedly been quoted as being very anti-dynastic.“We are in a precarious position,” she says, agreeing that the name has helped them. “But we haven’t used it for expedient politics.” Elaborating, she says “We have been doing this for 19 years. We haven’t come into power, yet we are still politically relevant — in fact, more than in the past — and it’s because of the response we get from the people.” She says this is because “we didn’t do dynastic politics purely,” adding that the party’s political beliefs are “half dynastic, half principled.”
Along with being a wife that carries on the legacy of her husband and a father-in-law she never knew comes the task of being a mother to two Bhutto scions. She says she tried to inculcate in Fatima and Zulfikar (Jr) the idea that, as human beings, we are responsible for each other. “I taught them to do this, but through any form that they see fit — whether art, writing, performing or politics. Right now they have no interest in the present atmosphere of politics. And who can blame them?” she asks. “They have seen first-hand how politics splits siblings, how it wiped out the family one by one. My children have learnt from this.”
Whether or not young Zulfikar throws his hat into the ring, ahead seems to be the only way a gritty Ghinwa can, and does, look. Behind her are memories of a turbulent past and a far-off land. “You belong to a place through roots, birth or death,” she muses. “Physically, home doesn’t exist. This is my home now. I am exercising my humanity here.”