Benazir Bhutto, the outstanding icon of Pakistan’s struggle for democracy, is gone. For those who only saw her as a distant political figure, her human dimension clearly did not matter. That applies to those who vilified her throughout her life, those who failed to protect her and those who actually killed her. But for everyone whose life she touched, her humanity transcended the politics.

I was among those who got to know Benazir Bhutto, the person — a daughter scarred by the assassination of her father, a sister injured by the killing of her brothers, a wife hurt by the disparagement and imprisonment without conviction of her husband, and a mother who was robbed of the opportunity to see her children grow into adulthood. With all the verbal and physical abuse hurled at her, she remained amazingly loving. Her loss is a personal loss to me and millions of others who admired her. Her assassination also creates serious challenges for the integrity and future of Pakistan.

Although many outsiders and most elite Pakistanis may not support the Pakistan Peoples Party’s decision to elect Benazir Bhutto’s son Bilawal Bhutto Zardari and husband Asif Ali Zardari as co-chairs of the party, this decision is absolutely the right one in the context of the PPP’s populist tradition. It will be welcomed by the majority of the party’s supporters — underprivileged Pakistanis who recognise the party as one that has consistently fought for the democratic rights of every Pakistani citizen.

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