Wife of former Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, Begum Nusrat Bhutto has died in Dubai due to protracted illness; here on Sunday in the age of 82.
Bhutto was mother of slain PPP chairperson Benazir Bhutto and mother-in-law of President Asif Ali Zardari.
She was ailing for last few years and under treatment in a hospital in Dubai.
Presidential Spokesman, Farhat Ullah Babar, while confirming her
death, says arrangements are being made for her burial in Bhutto
family’s ancestral graveyard, Gharhi Khuda Bux, adding that she would be
laid to rest next to her husband.
Meanwhile Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani telephoned President
Zardari and offered condolences with him over the death of his
mother-in-law.
Prime minister hailed the services of Nusrat Bhutto for the Pakistani
nation and democracy, adding that the death of Nusrat Bhutto is not
only the loss of PPP but it is the loss of whole nation, adding that the
services of former first lady would be remembered forever.
Babar said President Zardari, along with PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto
and two daughters, has reached Dubai from Jordon upon receiving the
news.
She became her husband’s successor as the chairman of the Pakistan
Peoples Party (PPP) from 1979-1983. Nusrat Bhutto was said to be of
Kurdish descent. Nusrat’s father was a wealthy Iranian businessman who
settled in Karachi.
Nusrat met Zulfikar Ali Bhutto in Karachi where they got married on
September 8, 1951. She was Zulfikar Ali Bhutto’s second wife, and they
had four children together, three of whom she has outlived.
Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) President Mian Nawaz Sharif,
Chief Minister Punjab Mian Shahbaz Sharif, Chief Minister Balochistan
Nawab Aslam Raesani, Governor Zulfiqar Ali Magsi, Amir JI Syed Munawar
Hassan and other leaders also offered condolences with President Zardari
over the death of Nusrat Bhutto and prayed that may Allah Almighty rest
the departed soul in eternal peace. SANA
