Benazir Bhutto was the first lady of the Muslim world who held the premier office. She was also the first lady Prime Minister of Pakistan and hold the premier office two times, first from 1988 to 1990 and second, from 1993 to 1996. The iron lady faced many challenges and hardships in her political career. She was the eldest child of the founder of Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto.
Early Life and Family
Benazir Bhutto was born to Zulifqar Ali Bhutto and Begum Nusrat Bhutto on 21 June 1953 in Karachi. Her father, Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto was also a politician also served as the Prime Minister of Pakistan. And her grandfather Shah Nawaz Bhutto was also the prominent politician of Sindh, he had been served Junagadh State as prime minister before Pakistan came on the map of the world. Her mother’s name was Begum Nusrat Bhutto, and she was an Iranian. Benazir was the eldest child of her parents, other three youngsters were Murtaza Bhutto born in 1954, Sanam Bhutto was born in 1957, and youngest Shahnawaz Bhutto was born in 1958.
Academic Career
Benazir’s parents sent her to Lady Jennings Nursery School, Karachi for some time. After that, she got admission to the Convent of Jesus and Mary School, Karachi, and attended Convent of Jesus and Mary Boarding School, Murree. She passed O’ Levels at a very young age of 16. Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto encouraged her daughter to study abroad and sent her Radcliffe College, Harvard University. There Benazir Bhutto studied comparative government and completed her bachelor’s degree. She stayed at Harvard for four years from 1969 to 1973. After that, Benazir went to Lady Margaret Hall, University of Oxford, the United Kingdom, for the second undergraduate degree. She studied Economics, Politics, and Philosophy there.
Benazir’s Extracurricular Activities During Studies
Her extracurricular activities are worth mentioning. Benazir was a guide campus tour and the secretary of Eliot House, and it is a dormitory for undergraduates at Harvard. She was also involved in a campaign against America and opposed the war in Vietnam. She also withstood the second wave of feminism in America in the opposition of their views. She joined her father in the United Nations’ Security Council’s meeting in 1971 in New York. Benazir also attended Indo-Pak Summit at Simla with father, Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto in 1972. There she met Prime Minister of India Indra Gandhi and got the attention of Indian print and electronic media. Oxford Union Debating Society elected her as the president of the society. She accompanied Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto at the Islamic Summit Conference at Lahore in 1947. And she introduced to the Muslim World’s Leaders, including Shah Faisal, Anwer Sadat, Mummar Qazzafi, and Hafiz Al-Assad. She led a campaign at Oxford and made them invite her father, Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto, for awarding him an honorary degree.
Returning to Pakistan
Benazir came back to Pakistan after completing an undergraduate degree from Oxford in 1977. Her father, Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto, was the Prime Minister of Pakistan at that time. Her father made the daughter work in Prime Minister’s Office. She was intent to make a career in the Foreign Service of Pakistan and enter the services exams.
Entering into Politics
Though she was interested in joining Foreign Service, circumstances took her into politics. General Muhammad Zia ul Haq brought down Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto’s government and arrested him in July 1977. And put the rest of her family members under house arrest. Her father was released but prisoned again, and Zia declared an emergency in Pakistan. And she had to make struggles to save her father. That time Benazir Bhutto sent her both brother abroad to seek international support for her father. Zulfiqar Bhutto also wanted his daughter to leave the country, but she refused. Later her father was hanged on 4 April 1979. After Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto, she was elected as the chairman of the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP).
Political Career
After Zia’s death in a plane crash, martial law in Pakistan was ended in 1988, Benazir participated in General Election of Pakistan, and her party won the elections. PPP won the contest on 93 constituencies out of 205. She was nominated for the premiership and became the youngest Prime Minister in the world as well as Muslim countries on 2 December 1988. But, president Ghulam Ishaq Khan dismissed her government in August 1990 and called for new elections. Her party only won 45 seats so they have to sit in opposition seats and Nawaz Sharif became the prime minister as his party IJI won the maximum number of seats, Ghulam Ishaq Khan was the president again. But in 1993, the president again dismissed a prime minister and announced for the general elections. Elections were held in October 1996, and Pakistan People’s Party won the election, and Mohterma Benazir Bhutto was the Prime Minister again. Her second term of premiership was also dismissed by the president Farooq Laghari on 4 November 1996. And after elections, she again became the leader of the opposition as her party could not manage to win elections. PMLN won elections Nawaz Sharif was the prime minister for the second time. Later, General Musharraf overthrew the government of Nawaz Sharif, and she managed to leave the country due to corruption charges. After the deportation of 8 years, Benazir Bhutto returned to Pakistan in October 2007. As president Musharraf allowed her to come and participate in the general elections of 2008.
Wedding and Kids
Benazir Bhutto married Asif Ali Zardari in 1987. They have three children a son Bilawal Bhutto Zardari and two daughters Asifa Bhutto Zardari and Bakhtawer Bhutto Zardari.
Benazir Bhutto’s Assassination
On 27 December 2008, Benazir Bhutto attended a rally in Liaquat National Bagh, Rawalpindi, and delivered an address to party workers. She was leaving after speech in a bulletproof car, but decided to wave at the crowd and stood up from car escape hatch. Soon after, a man shot at her, and there was also a bomb blast immediately. Benazir Bhutto was poorly injured and rushed into Rawalpindi General Hospital but dead on arrival at the hospital.
There are various assumptions about her killers; authorities claimed that Taliban’s Commander Baitullah Mehsud was responsible for the attack on Benazir Bhutto. She is buried in Bhutto’s family graveyard, Garhi Khuda Bakhsh, Larkana.