Shahnawaz Bhutto
Shahnawaz Bhutto was the son of the late Prime Minister,
Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto and Begum
Nusrat Bhutto. Shahnawaz Bhutto was the youngest of Bhutto's 4 children . Shahnawaz was schooled in
Pakistan and later traveled abroad to complete his higher education.
Shahnawaz was at Oxford when
Zia ul Haq's military regime executed his father, Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto, in
1979. Prior to his execution, Shahnawaz and his elder brother
Murtaza Bhutto embarked on an international campaign to save their father's life, but it was to no avail, and the two brothers continued to resist the military abrogation of the
1973 constitution in exile.
6 years later , Bhutto family faced another tragedy as the 27 year old Shahnawaz, was found dead in his French Riviera apartment on July ,18 in
Nice,
France. He might possibly have died of the drug abuse but the Bhutto family insists that he was murdered and was poisoned and subsequently died under mysterious circumstances, and like his father's death, no one was brought to trial. He had once helped organize a group dedicated to overthrowing the regime of President Mohammed Zia ul-Haq. This group, called
Al-Zulfiqar is highly alleged to start the terrorist activities in Pakistan at that time. His funeral turned into a defiant show of opposition to Zia's military rule.Shahnawaz's wife, however, was considered a suspect by the French authorities and remained in their custody for sometime until she was allowed to travel to the
USA, a couple of years later. She was sentenced in absentia for failing to come to the aid of a dying man.
Funeral of Shahnawaz was held in a
Larkana sports stadium.Attended by an estimated 25,000 people.
