It's now Bhutto "junior" for people of Larkana

ISLAMABAD, Sept 28: Having lost hopes from Benazir Bhutto, the people of Larkana, the small northern Sindh town which has given Pakistan two of its prime ministers, are pinning their hopes on the last male member of Bhutto dynasty, Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto Junior.

Eight-year old Bhutto Junior is the only son of Mir Murtaza Bhutto, brother of Benazir, who was brutally murdered during a police encounter in Karachi in the last days of Benazir's government two years ago.

The people are waiting for the day when both Bhutto Junior and Murtaza's daughter Fatima Bhutto (15), take up the reigns of the Pakistan People's Party (PPP), launched by Z A Bhutto during the tumultuous days of early 1970s when the country had just experienced a break up.
``The day Fatima and Zulfiqar take oath, only then we will be satisfied,'' a poor farmer was quoted as saying by the local media which also claimed the people of Larakana want to see justice being done to the Bhutto orphans.

The people have not yet forgotten the tragedy ofSeptember 1996 when Murtaza was killed.
``Murtaza could have become prime minister. That is why he was killed,'' the farmer said in a pensive mood.

Reports suggest the majority of the people in Larkana share this view and they blame Benazir's husband's Asif Zardari for it. the rivalry between Murtaza and Zardari was well known before that fateful day of September 20 when the former was gunned down in a police encounter near his house in Karachi and people suspect Zardari who was then a `powerful' minister in Benazir Bhutto government.

Apparently the hatred for Zardari has also alienated people of Larkana from Benazir, whose name is already embroiled in various corruption cases and the general feeling among the people is that she would not be able to make a comeback in politics, media reports suggest.

Mubashir Hussain and Ghulam Hussain, two close associates of Z A Bhutto, also confirm this view that Benazir and political heir of general Zia-ul-Haq, Nawaz Sharif, have failed the peopleof Pakistan.

They are convinced that PPP (Shaheed Bhutto group), which is now being headed by Murtaza's widow Ghinwa Bhutto, would ultimately emerge as major national political party in the long run.
Though Ghinwa has a big disadvantage being Lebanese born, she is gradually showing political maturity which was very much evident during her speech to the masses on the second death anniversary of Murtaza Bhutto a week ago.

She was, it seems, preparing the ground for Fatima Bhutto, who is born of Murtaza's first wife, and Bhutto Junior to take the centrestage in the years to come.Fatima has also shown flashes of the Bhutto character during her first public appearance earlier this year when she recited her poems at a gathering.Fatima's public appearance was so strong that it even unnerved the leaders of the main PPP who hurriedly arranged her real mother, Fauzia Bhutto, to fly down from the United States and claim the custody of her daughter for taking her back to America.

However, Fatima refused to go during a court hearing and preferred to be with Ghinwa in Pakistan...