Benazir Bhutto

Pakistan’s Benazir Bhutto (1953-2007) was the first elected female leader of a
Muslim country during a turbulent life that ended with her murder. The
daughter of Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) founder and Prime Minister Zulfikar
Ali Bhutto, Bhutto led over as chairperson of the PPP in 1982. After her two
periods as prime minister in the 1990s ended early during charges of
corruption, Bhutto spent several years in banishment in London. She put back
to Pakistan with plans to participate in the 2008 general election but was
assassinated during an attack at a PPP rally in late 2007.
Benazir Bhutto was innate June 21, 1953, in Karachi, SE Pakistan, the eldest
child of former leader Zulfikar Ali Bhutto. He founded the Pakistan People’s
Party (PPP) and was prime minister from 1971 to 1977. After concluding her
early education in Pakistan, she tracked her higher education in the United
States. From 1969 to 1973, she joined Radcliffe College, and then Harvard
University, where she graduated with a B.A. degree in comparative
government. It was then on the United Kingdom to study at Oxford from 1973
to 1977. There, she finalized a course in International Law and Diplomacy.
Bhutto reverted to Pakistan in 1977 and was placed under house detention
after the military coup led by General Mohammad Zia ul-Haq deposed her
father’s government. One year after Zia ul-Haq became president in 1978, the
elder Bhutto was hanged after his sentence on charges of authorizing the
murder of a rival. She innates her father’s leadership of the PPP.
There was more family disaster in 1980 when Bhutto’s brother Shahnawaz was
murdered in his apartment on the Riviera in 1980. The family claimed he was
murdered, but no charges were taken. Another brother, Murtaza, died in 1996
(while his sister was in power) in a gun skirmish with police in Karachi. She
shifted to England in 1984, becoming the joint leader in expulsion of the PPP,
then returned to Pakistan on April 10, 1986, to initiate a national movement
for ‘open elections.
She wedded a wealthy proprietor, Asif Ali Zardari, in Karachi on December 18,
1987. The couple had three children: son Bilawal and two daughters,
Bakhtawar and Aseefa.
Zia ul-Haq’s dictatorship culminated when he was killed in a plane crash in
1988. And Bhutto was selected prime minister scarcely three months after
giving birth to her first child. She come to be the first ever female prime
minister of a Muslim nation on December 1, 1988. Bhutto was trounced in the
1990 election and found herself in court supporting herself against several
charges of delinquency while in office. Bhutto maintained to be a leading focus
of opposition dissatisfaction and won a further election in 1993, but was
switched in 1996.While in self-imposed banishment in Britain and Dubai, she
was condemned in 1999 of corruption and condemned to three years in
prison. She stayed to direct her party from abroad, being re-asserted as PPP
leader in 2002.
Bhutto reverted to Pakistan on October 18, 2007, after President Musharraf
approved her absolution on all corruption charges, inaugural the way for her
return and a viable power-sharing agreement.
Bhutto’s repatriation rally after eight years in banishment was hit by a
suicide attack, killing 136 people. She only survived after evading along
the moment of effect behind her armoured vehicle. Bhutto said it was
Pakistan’s “blackest day” when Musharraf enforced a state of
emergency at 3 rd Nov and menaced to bring her supporters on to the
streets in mass rallies. She was placed under house arrest 9 th Nov.
Bhutto called for his letter of resignation four days later. Emergency
rule was repealed Dec.
Bhutto was murdered when a killer fired up shots and then blew himself up
after an election campaign rally in Rawalpindi on December 27, 2007. The
attack also killed 28 others and injured at least another hundred. The attacker
attacked just minutes after Bhutto addressed a rally of thousands of supporters
in the garrison city of Rawalpindi, eight miles south of Islamabad. She died
after hitting her head on part of her vehicle’s sunroof — not as a cause of
bullets or, a spokesperson for Pakistan’s Interior Ministry said. President
Musharraf said he had requested a team of agents from Britain’s Scotland Yard
to help in the investigation into Bhutto’s killing. Hundreds of thousands of
grievers paid last regards to former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto on
December 28, 2007 as she was buried at her family’s burial place in Garhi
Khuda Bakhsh, the southern province of Sindh. Pakistani President Pervez
Musharraf proclaimed three days of mourning. Bhutto’s husband, Asif Ali
Zardari, her three children and her sister Sanam attended the burial. Bhutto
was buried alongside her father Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, Pakistan’s first commonly
elected prime minister who was later put to death by hanging.
The shooting and bombing attack on the former prime minister fell Pakistan
into instability. Pakistan is fortified with nuclear weapons and is a key U.S.
partner in the war on terrorism. Concerted supporters raged through several
cities, set fire to cars, trains and stores in brutality that left at least 23 dead.
Pakistan’s election commission publicised January 2, 2008 that parliamentary
elections would be delayed until February 18, a delay of six weeks. Bhutto
allegedly had been planning to give two visiting American legislators a 160-
page report condemning the Musharraf government of taking steps to
assemble the 8th Jan vote.
Pakistan’s Core Ministry also disclosed that it had” irrefutable evidence”
confirming that al Qaeda was behind Bhutto’s murder. Brigadier Javed Iqbal
Cheema said the government had documented an “intelligence stop” in which
al Qaeda leader Baitullah Mehsud “praised his people for taking out this
gutless act.” Mehsud is considered as the commander of pro-Taliban forces in
the uncontrolled Pakistani tribal region South Waziristan, where al-Qaida
warriors are also active. Mehsud has refused interest.