There were more than 3,000 Pakistan People’s Party workers and leaders, most of them from working class, who gathered in a cricket ground in Multan to offer Ghaibana Namaz-e-Janaza for their departed leader Benazir Bhutto last Saturday. Almost every one was crying, embracing in utter grief and consoling each other. They were carrying party flags to show their commitment and loyalty with the party and the leader. They were raising full-throat slogans against the “murderers” of Benazir. They were raising slogan of “BB tere khoon se…Inquilab aae ga” (BB--your blood will herald the revolution). Namaz-e-Janaza looked like a charged party gathering.

There were three generations of the party workers mourning assassination of another of their leader, another great Bhutto. There were old guards, some of them founding members of the party such as Malik Mukhtar Awan, who saw Benazir grooming under the patronage of her illustrious father Zulfikar Ali Bhutto from a young college girl to a seasoned politician and internationally recognised stateswoman during past three decades, there were middle aged workers like Khurshid Khan and Ilyas Khan who grew up with Benazir and stood with her through martial laws, through all odds during long historic struggle for democracy in the country, and there were hundreds of young People’s Students Federation activists full of anger who were hoping for a bright future with Benazir Bhutto. There were poor women too carrying party flags, crying and raising slogans.

True, sudden and unfortunate departing of the popular leader is a great set back for the party and its supporters. The party, its leaders and workers faced the first great loss when ZA Bhutto was hanged almost three decades ago. The leaders and workers of the party braved the dictatorial rule of General Zia and survived. The resilience of the party under the leadership of Benazir Bhutto was because of its courageous leadership, committed workers and the philosophy of the party, which was later, dubbed as Bhuttoism. The party workers and its supporters got strength and inspiration from the martyrdom of ZA Bhutto. The annual gathering of party workers on the occasion of death anniversary of Bhutto at Garhi Khuda Bakhsh kept the fighting spirit alive and his mausoleum became a symbol of struggle against oppression, injustice and dictatorship.

Native people of the whole Indus Valley (now called Pakistan), urban working class and lumpen proletariat (now identified as informal sector by development consultants) considered the PPP and Bhuttos as their saviour and stood with the party through thick and thin. They are core of the party. They are more familiar with the party’s culture and the idiom rather than that of the political parties cobbled by the establishment from time to time. The establishment and its supporters hate this core of the party and its perceived saviours, and are engaged in an unending war against the people of Indus Valley, against the working class and the poor. But in every apparent victory, there springs a dreadful defeat for the enemies of the people.

The legacy, continuity and philosophy of political parties keep them alive and vibrant. In India, National Congress and Gandhis are keeping each other alive. The untimely deaths of the Prime Minister Indra Gandhi and her sons, Prime Minister Rajiv and Sanjay, put the party in difficulties but it sprang back in the last election. Now Sonia and her son, Rahul, are running the party. In Pakistan, the assassination of ZA Bhutto, Shahnawaz Bhutto, Murtaza Bhutto and now Benazir Bhutto failed to dampen the spirit and aspirations of the workers, supporters and the party. There is another Bhutto, young Bilawal, to keep the torch high. This is the verdict of history, at least, in South Asia.

The establishment in Pakistan seems frustrated how to put the genie of Bhuttoism in the bottle. The ghost of ZA Bhutto kept the establishment frightened for three long decades. Now, there is ghost of Benazir. Young, more powerful and dreadful. Now, there are two shaheeds, illustrious father and his courageous daughter, in one mausoleum at Garhi Khuda Bakhsh, two fighting spirits under one chamber to inspire hundreds of thousands of people, who would gather twice in a year at the mausoleum to pay their homage to shaheeds on their death anniversaries, to keep fighting.