MUZAFFARGARH, Oct 18: While the ruling party may or may not remember its ‘jiala’, the ageing parents of Muhammad Ashraf who lost his life in the bombing on Benazir Bhutto’s motorcade in Karachi exactly one year ago have a tale for tears.
Ashraf was one of many Karsaz bombing victims who laid down their lives while showing allegiance to the PPP for which they travelled to Karachi to join a procession. However, all the party has done in return for the bereaved families is making one commitment after another without doing anything practical. Are promises meant to be broken?
During a visit to the parents of the 27-year-old victim at Dambarwali area of Jatoi tehsil, about 60 kilometres from the city, his 75-year-old father Abdullah and mother, a shattered woman, said they had the fond memories of their beloved son to pay him a tribute on his first death anniversary.
“One year ago, when Ashraf was leaving home for Karachi to welcome Benazir Bhutto, he was very happy and saying Benazir will bring about ‘Inqalab’ and prosperity for us,” recalled the woman. She said Sardar Abdul Qayyum Jatoi, who is now an MNA, arranged a bus for the people and almost 10 others from their village went to the rally.
She said her son had plans to tie the knot in November for which he wanted to do some shopping from Karachi.
She said she heard about the bombing on Oct 19 and after two days, the body of Ashraf reached the village in an ambulance. With the son’s death, she said, the light of her life went out and henceforward they had been counting their days.
The aggrieved mother said the villagers and other people contributed money for her son’s burial and Qul.
A few weeks later, she said Farzana Raja, the then PPP Punjab information secretary, offered condolence on behalf of Benazir Bhutto and promised job to a member of their family and a house but nothing had been done so far.
Akram, a younger brother of Ashraf, said that after elections when the PPP came into power and Qayyum Jatoi became MNA, he went to see him for job but no one listened to him. Living in the throes of poverty, he said, they could not observe the death anniversary of their dear one.