Bhutto, Benazir, << BOO toh, BEHN uh zihr >> (1953-2007), served as prime minister of Pakistan from 1988 until 1990 and from 1993 to 1996. She was the first woman ever to head an elected government in an Islamic nation.
Benazir Bhutto was born on June 21, 1953, in Karachi. She attended Harvard University in the United States and Oxford University in England. Her father, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, founded the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) and became prime minister in 1971. In 1977, he was overthrown by General Mohammed Zia-ul-Haq and imprisoned. The military government executed him in 1979. Benazir Bhutto was also arrested and imprisoned several times. In 1984, she went into exile in England. She returned to Pakistan in 1986, after the military relaxed some restrictions, to head the PPP.
General Zia died in August 1988. Elections held in December 1988 brought the PPP to power, and Bhutto became prime minister. In 1990, Pakistan’s president charged Bhutto’s government with corruption. He removed Bhutto from office. In 1993, elections returned the PPP to power, and Bhutto became prime minister again. In 1996, Pakistan’s president charged Bhutto’s government with corruption and again removed Bhutto from office. In 1999, she was convicted of corruption and given a jail sentence. She denied the charges, which she claimed had been brought against her for political reasons. Bhutto was in London at the time of the conviction. She remained in exile in the United Kingdom and the United Arab Emirates until 2007. That year, the government granted her amnesty.
In October 2007, she returned to Pakistan to run in parliamentary elections scheduled for January 2008. When she returned, suicide bombers attempted to assassinate her, killing almost 140 people. Bhutto survived. In November, President Pervez Musharraf declared emergency rule, and Bhutto was briefly put under house arrest. On December 16, Musharraf lifted emergency rule. On December 27, Bhutto was killed by an assassin after addressing thousands of supporters at a political rally. The assassin then blew himself up, killing at least 20 other people.
See also Zardari, Asif Ali.
