Benazir Bhutto

Mohtarma

Benazir Bhutto
Mohtarma; Benazir Bhutto
بينظير بُھٹو‎
	Bhutto in 2006
11th and 13th Prime Minister of Pakistan
	In office; 18 October 1993 – 5 November 1996
President	Wasim Sajjad (acting); Farooq Leghari
Preceded by	Nawaz Sharif; Moeenuddin Ahmad Qureshi (Caretaker)
Succeeded by	Malik Meraj Khalid (Caretaker); Nawaz Sharif
	In office; 2 December 1988 – 6 August 1990
President	Ghulam Ishaq Khan
Preceded by	Muhammad Khan Junejo
Succeeded by	Ghulam Mustafa Jatoi (caretaker); Nawaz Sharif
Preceded by
Other political offices
Leader of the Opposition
	In office; 17 February 1997 – 12 October 1999
Preceded by	Nawaz Sharif
Succeeded by	Fazl-ur-Rehman
	In office; 6 November 1990 – 18 April 1993
Preceded by	Khan Abdul Wali Khan
Succeeded by	Nawaz Sharif
Chairperson of the Pakistan Peoples Party
	In office; 12 November 1982 – 27 December 2007
Preceded by	Nusrat Bhutto
Succeeded by	Asif Ali Zardari; Bilawal Bhutto Zardari
Personal details
Born	21 June 1953; Karachi, Federal Capital Territory, Pakistan
Died	27 December 2007 (aged 54); Rawalpindi, Punjab, Pakistan
Cause of death	Gunshot wounds
Resting place	Bhutto family mausoleum
Nationality	Pakistani
Political party	Pakistan People's Party
Spouse(s)	Asif Ali Zardari (m. 1987)
Relations	Bhutto family; Zardari family;
Children	Bilawal; Bakhtawar; Aseefa;
Parents	Zulfikar Ali Bhutto; Nusrat Bhutto
Education	Radcliffe College, Harvard (AB); Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford (BA); St Catherine's College, Oxford (MSt); ;
Signature
Nickname(s)	BB ; Iron Lady

Benazir Bhutto (21 June 1953 – 27 December 2007) was a Pakistani politician who became the 11th and 13th prime minister of Pakistan. She served from 1988 to 1990 and then from 1993 to 1996. She made history as the first woman to lead a democratic government in a Muslim-majority country. She was Pakistan’s first female prime minister and till this date, the only female prime minister.^[1]^[2] Benazir Bhutto was a liberal and a secularist, and she played a significant role in the Pakistan People's Party (PPP) from the early 1980s until she was killed in 2007.

Life

Born in Karachi to a politically influential and wealthy family with Sindhi and Kurdish roots. Bhutto was the elder daughter of Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto and Nusrat Bhutto (née Ispahani). She studied at Harvard University and the University of Oxford.^[3] Her father, Zulfikar Bhutto, was a prominent leader of the PPP and served as prime minister. After her father's ousting and execution following a military coup in 1977, Benazir Bhutto, along with her mother Nusrat, took charge of the PPP and led the Movement for the Restoration of Democracy. She faced imprisonment under the military government of Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq and later chose self-exile in Britain in 1984.^[4]

Bhutto was the first woman elected to lead a Muslim state. She was elected Prime Minister of Pakistan twice. She was sworn in for the first time in 1988 but removed from office 20 months later under orders of then-president Ghulam Ishaq Khan on a belief that she was corrupt. In 1993 Bhutto was re-elected but was again removed in 1996 on similar charges, this time by President Farooq Leghari.

Death

En route to a rally in Karachi on 18 October 2007, two explosions occurred shortly after Bhutto had landed and left Jinnah International Airport returning from her exile. She was not injured, but the explosions, later found to be a suicide-bomb attack that killed 139 people and injured at least 450.

Two months after her assassination attempt, she was shot to death while getting into a vehicle to leave a political meeting for the Pakistan Peoples Party in Rawalpindi before detonating an explosive vest on December 27, 2007. She was 54 years old. ^[5] The exploding kills 24 people and wounded 43 others. ^[6] She is called Shaheed-e-Jamhuriat (Martyr of Democracy) by her fans.