June 21 marks the birth anniversary of Shaheed Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto (Shaheed Bibi). She was born on June 21, 1953, in Karachi. On that day, her father, Shaheed Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, her mother, Begum Nusrat Bhutto, and the entire Bhutto family celebrated the immense joy that her birth brought them.

Shaheed Bhutto described this moment in detail in a letter he wrote to Shaheed Bibi on her 25th birthday, June 21, 1978, while on death row in Rawalpindi Jail. This letter was later published in book form under the title My Most Beloved Daughter.

In this letter, Shaheed Bhutto wrote that Shaheed Bibi was a deeply compassionate and sensitive child, so much so that she once cried the whole day and refused to eat after a pigeon died. To this same daughter, on her birthday, he gifted her “the hand of the people,” saying he had nothing else to give from his death cell. This remarkably kind-hearted Shaheed Bibi went on to confront some of the most ruthless and heartless colonial forces in the world to uphold that gift. She ultimately sacrificed her life for Pakistan and its people at the age of just 54.

Shaheed Bibi once wrote that during her final meeting with her father, a day before his execution, she promised him that she would carry forward his mission. After making this solemn vow to Shaheed Baba, she dedicated the next 30 years of her life to fulfilling it, enduring immense hardships and suffering until her martyrdom.

What was Shaheed Bhutto’s mission? Shaheed Bibi carried it forward as a well-defined programme. His mission was to empower the people by giving them the right to make all decisions through democracy and to make the defence of the state of Pakistan impregnable. Shaheed........

© Business Recorder