Benazir Bhuto

Benazir Bhuto (1953-2007), was born in the Karachi city of Pakistan and was the daughter of the former Pakistani Prime Minister Zulfikar Bhutto.

She was the firstborn child of Premier Zulfikar, the founder of the PPP party and the premier of Pakistan between 1971-1977. She inherited the leadership of the PPP party following a military coup that saw the government of her father removed from power.

She proceeded to win the 1988 elections and became the very first female premier of not only the nation of Pakistan but in the entire Muslim nations. In 1977, she came back to Pakistan after an extended exile but received a rather hostile reception from the government when she was placed under house arrest by the military government of General Mohammad Zia who had overthrown her father’s government.

A year following the general’s accent to power, Benazir’s father was hanged after being convicted of charges of murdering an opponent. It is then that she inherited her father’s position as the leader of PPP. More tragedy befell the Bhuto family when her brother, Shahnawaz was found murdered in a Riviera apartment in 1980. As much as his family members insisted that he had been poisoned, no one was charged for the murder.

Another of the Bhuto brothers dies in 1996 during a gun battle with the police and this was while Benazir was in power. Benazir moved to England in 1984 and became the joint leader in exile of the PPP before returning to Pakistan in 1986 and launched a nationwide campaign for open elections. Benazir ascended to power after the dictator general died in a plane crash.