Historical Figures

Benazir Bhutto, Pakistani Prime Minister

Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto (1953 – 2007) is a Pakistani politician. A key figure in the history of Pakistan, she was the leader of her party and twice Prime Minister of her country. Murdered, she was awarded the United Nations Human Rights Prize posthumously.

Conviction of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto

Daughter of former President then Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto and Nusrat Ispahani Bhutto, Benazir Bhutto was born on the 21 June 1953 in Karachi, Pakistan; The eldest of four children, she has two brothers, Murtaza and Shahnawaz, and a sister, Sanam. Educated in former Catholic boarding schools, she left for the United States at the age of 16 to continue her studies at Radcliffe College at Harvard. There she obtained a degree in comparative government before leaving to finish her studies in Oxford, England, where she studied international law, diplomacy, philosophy, politics and economics.

After graduating, Benazir returned to Pakistan in 1977, where his father was Prime Minister, to embark on a diplomatic career. On July 5, a few days after his return, a coup led by General Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq deposed Zulfikar Ali Bhutto. The former Prime Minister is tried for conspiracy in an assassination, sentenced to death and hanged, while his sons go into exile and his wife and eldest daughter are detained in a camp. They will remain in remand centers until 1979. Released, Benazir goes into exile in the United Kingdom for medical reasons.

Prime Minister at 35

Since her exile, Benazir Bhutto has become leader of the Pakistani People's Party (PPP) founded by her father and claiming Islamic socialism; she succeeds her mother, who remains co-president. She raises her voice to denounce the treatment reserved for political prisoners in Pakistan. In 1985, she learned that her brother Shahnawaz had died of poisoning in Nice. The same year, she denounced human rights violations in the European Parliament. In response to his speech, Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq condemns 50 members of his party to death. In 1986, Benazir returned to Pakistan and was triumphantly welcomed there. The following year, following a demonstration against General Zia, she escaped an attack. The same year, she married Asif Ali Zardari with whom she had three children:Bilawal, Bakhtawar and Aseefa.

On August 17, 1988, Zia ul-Haq died in a plane crash and Senate President Ghulam Ishaq Khan became acting president pending an election, delayed by attacks in Karachi and Hyderabad. Benazir leads the campaign and, on November 16, 1988, the PPP easily wins the legislative elections; she herself is elected in the three constituencies in which she ran. His mother is also elected in two constituencies. Joining forces with the Muttahida Qaumi Movement, the PPP obtained an absolute majority in the National Assembly. After a brief conflict, Ghulam Ishaq Khan appoints Benazir Bhutto Prime Minister and charges her with forming a government. At 35, she becomes the youngest person and the first democratically elected woman to lead a country with a Muslim majority.

Elected by the National Assembly

Her mandate was marked by the withdrawal of Soviet troops, a visit to Washington where she met George H. W. Bush and the return of Pakistan to the Commonwealth . It leads a liberal policy of privatization of large national companies. Benazir Bhutto maintained a conflicted relationship with the president and, in 1990, the latter dissolved the National Assembly and removed the Prime Minister from office. She was accused of corruption and abuse of power and her husband was held in detention before being acquitted in 1993; herself appear in 1990-1991 and will be exonerated in 1994.

In 1993, Ghulam Ishaq Khan and his new Prime Minister jointly resigned over political rivalries and disputes, and new elections were held, won by the PPP. On October 20, 1993, the National Assembly elected Benazir Bhutto Prime Minister while Farooq Leghari, a member of the PPP, was elected President on November 13. For his second term, Benazir contracted alliances, consolidated his power and tried to strengthen his ties with the Western powers. She entrusts Afghan policy to her interior minister and documents show links between Pakistan and the Taliban. In 1996, Benazir's second brother, Murtaza, was killed in a shootout with the police. Rivalries having emerged between her brother and her, the Prime Minister is quickly suspected but this suspicion will never be confirmed. Benazir Bhutto and the president refer the accusation to each other and tensions rise until November 5, 1996 when Farooq Leghari dismisses his Prime Minister from office and dissolves the Assembly.

The attack

Benazir Bhutto and his government were accused of corruption, and in the 1997 elections the PPP suffered a heavy defeat. The former Prime Minister contests these elections, but in vain. In 1998, still accused of corruption, she went into exile in Dubai to escape justice. In 1999, she was sentenced. She challenged this judgment but, not appearing at the appeal trial, was sentenced in 2002 to no longer be able to return to Pakistan. A new law preventing him from serving more than two terms as prime minister, Benazir cannot regain power. She travels around the world, gives conferences and notably speaks before the United States Congress.

In October 2007, President Musharraf pardoned Bhutto. After eight years in exile, she returned to Pakistan on October 18 and was welcomed by many sympathizers. On her way to the capital, she is the target of a suicide attack from which she escapes but which kills 136 people. Following the resurgence of attacks, President Musharraf proclaims a state of emergency; Benazir calls for demonstrations against this decision and is placed under house arrest on several occasions.

On November 25, she announced her candidacy for the January 2008 legislative elections. On December 27, she went to a PPP meeting in a public park. As she waves to the crowd through the sunroof of her car, a man fires three shots in her direction and then detonates the explosives he is carrying. Benazir Bhutto was taken to hospital where she died after a half-hour attempt at resuscitation. Twenty people were also killed in the attack.

The death of Benazir Bhutto triggers riots and demonstrations in the country and the president decrees three days of national mourning. In March 2008, the Pakistani courts indicted the leader of the TTP, Taliban Movement of Pakistan, Baitullah Mehsud.; he will be killed in 2009 during American strikes.