KARACHI, Dec 30: While the city stayed comparatively calm on Sunday after three days of violence, the streets of Shershah wore a sorrowful look.

In narrow Lane 17 on Jinnah Road, hundreds of area people gathered to pay tribute to the commitment of Aslam Nazeer, a diehard worker of the Pakistan People’s Party who lost his life in the Dec 27 gun-and-bomb suicide attack.

As an ambulance carrying Aslam’s body reached Shershah with the siren wailing, hundreds of youths ran after the vehicle to accompany the coffin and comfort the aggrieved family.

The 55-year-old bodyguard of the former prime minister, who could not stop the assassin’s bullet from reaching Benazir Bhutto, might have died seconds after the bomb attack.

“Had he survived the attack, he could not live life without his leader,” said Aslam’s widow, Zeb-un-Nisa, as tears welled up in her eyes. The only victim from Karachi of the tragedy, Aslam’s family enjoys a history of political activism with no shift in loyalty.

Zulfikar Ali Bhutto was more a spiritual than political leader for Aslam’s father Mohammad Nazeer. As the political mantle of the Bhutto family shifted from father to daughter, Aslam inherited the dedication from Mohammad Nazeer.

As the father was at the service of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, the son continued the family’s legacy for Benazir. Aslam was also by Ms Bhutto’s side when she survived the earlier attempt on her life on Oct 18.

“He was also on the truck carrying BB on Oct 18 in line with the party’s orders,” said Zeb-un-Nisa. “But he survived when he got off the vehicle to drink water. He survived because his leader was there and maybe he had nothing left in the world to live for after she died.”

As Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari read out the will of his assassinated mother after the PPP’s central executive committee meeting in Larkana on Sunday, Aslam’s elder son, Ramzan, recalled the last words of his father when he left for Rawalpindi four days before the planned rally.

“He told me to take care of the family,” said 21-year-old Ramzan while sobbing, tears rolling down his cheeks as friends surrounded him. “I asked why he was talking like that. He just smiled and told me maybe he would not return.”

A matter of destiny

Earning his livelihood as a loom factory worker in the Site industrial area and the father of four sons and two daughters, Aslam expected the party would guide the country towards a true democratic future. The eldest among six siblings, his younger brother Arshad believes Aslam met the fate he lived for.

“That’s what had to happen to him,” he said. “He was a true and committed worker of the PPP, whose life started with idealizing Zulfikar Ali Bhutto and ended while protecting Benazir.”

The people of Shershah thronged the streets to catch the last glimpse of the deceased. Though at main Jinnah Road, the main commercial area of the locality, businesses remained closed for the third consecutive day, life seemed busy when hundreds of people started lining up to offer Aslam’s funeral prayers.

Though the only bread earner of the seven-member family is no more, his inspiration lives on as his wife and children do not want the party to support them in their hour of grief, neither do they want to discuss the issue.

“We just want our party to live long,” said Ramzan, the elder son. “We don’t want any financial support, nor do we need any condolence from the leadership. We just want our PPP to reorganize and continue the struggle BB and my father died for.”