Benazir Bhutto arrives in the USA

Being interviewed in 1988

Benazir Bhutto (June 21, 1953 – December 27, 2007) was the 11th Prime Minister of Pakistan, serving two non-consecutive terms in 1988 and then 1993.

MM

Born into the politically powerful Bhutto family, she was the eldest daughter of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, a former prime minister himself who founded the centre left Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP). She was the first woman to become head of government of any Muslim nation.

MM

In 1982, three years after her father's execution, 29-year-old Benazir Bhutto became the chairperson of the PPP, making her the first woman in Pakistan to head a major political party. In 1988, she became the first woman to be elected as the head of an Islamic state's government; she also remains Pakistan's only female prime minister.

MM

Noted for her charismatic authority and political astuteness, Bhutto drove initiatives for Pakistan's economy and national security, implementing capitalist policies for industrial development and growth. In addition, her political philosophy and economic policies encoraged deregulation of the financial sector, flexible labour markets, the denationalisation of state owned corporations, and the withdrawal of subsidies to others. Bhutto's popularity waned amid recession, corruption, and high unemployment which later led to the dismissal of her government by conservative President Ghulam Ishaq Khan.

MM

In 1993, Bhutto was elected for a second term. She survived an attempted coup d'état in 1995, and her hard line against the trade unions and tough opposition to her domestic political rivals and to neighbouring India earned her the nickname "Iron Lady". She was also respectfully referred to as "BB".

MM

In 1996, charges of corruption levelled against her led to the final dismissal of her government by President Farooq Leghari. Bhutto conceded her defeat in the 1997 Parliamentary elections and went into self-emposed exile in Britain and Dubai.

MM

Nine years later, in 2007, she returned to Pakistan, having reached an understanding with President Pervez Musharraf, who granted her amnesty and withdrew all corruption charges against her. Bhutto’s homecoming rally after eight years in exile was hit by a suicide attack, killing 136 people. She only survived after ducking down at the moment of impact behind her armored vehicle. Bhutto said it was Pakistan’s “blackest day” when Musharraf imposed a state of emergency Nov. 3 and threatened to bring her supporters on to the streets in mass demonstrations. She was placed under house arrest Nov. 9. Bhutto called for his resignation four days later. Emergency rule was lifted Dec.

Bhutto was killed when an assassin fired shots and then blew himself up after an election campaign rally in Rawalpindi on December 27, 2007. The attack also killed 28 others and wounded at least another 100. The attacker struck just minutes after Bhutto addressed a rally of thousands of supporters in the garrison city of Rawalpindi, 8 miles south of Islamabad. She died after hitting her head on part of her vehicle’s sunroof — not as a result of bullets or shrapnel, a spokesman for Pakistan’s Interior Ministry reported.

MM

Hundreds of thousands of mourners paid last respects to former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto as she was buried at her family’s mausoleum in Garhi Khuda Bakhsh, the southern province of Sindh. President Musharraf announced 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.

MM

The PPP subsequently won the following elections on a wave of sympathy

generated by her assassination.

Source: Wikipedia/www.history.com

Images: Believed to be in the Public Domain or used with permission