Bhutto, Benazir

Benazir Bhutto (1953-2007) was a Pakistani politician and the country's first female prime minister. She served as prime minister twice, between 1988 and 1990, and 1993 and 1996.

Benazir Bhutto, Prime Minister of Pakistan, speaks to the press during a 1989 state visit to the United States.

Bhutto was born into a wealthy landowning family and was the daughter of Pakistan's first democratically elected prime minister, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto. After attaining her primary education in Pakistan, she achieved a Bachelor of Arts from Radcliffe College at Harvard University. Thereafter she went on to study at Oxford University. In 1986, she married Asif Ali Zardari, with whom she had three children.

After completing her education abroad, Bhutto returned to Pakistan in summer 1977 to gain experience working for her father's government. Following the turbulence caused by the elections that year, in July, General Zia-ul-Haq overthrew Zulfikar Ali Bhutto and put him under house arrest. The former prime minister was charged for murder of a political opponent and during the years of the trial, Bhutto and her brothers became involved in the opposition movement. Zulfikar Ali Bhutto was executed in April 1979 and after years in and out of house arrest and prison, in 1984, Bhutto went into exile in London.

While living in exile Bhutto was sworn in as chairman of the Pakistan People's Party (PPP) in 1984. She was chosen as a leader by the senior party staff, [Page 151]as they considered her an appropriate symbol, who would lay no claims to power. In reality she proved to be a strong and ambitious leader campaigning zealously for the elections in 1988, while being pregnant with her first child.

In these elections, which followed the accidental death of General Zia-ul-Haq, Bhutto's PPP managed to win through coalition making and compromising with the military. In order to keep her hold of the power, Bhutto had to negotiate with the military leadership and the president. Another major obstacle resulting from the election was the opposition provincial government in Punjab, the most populous and wealthy province. The largest party in the province and its leader, Nawaz Sharif, challenged the government on all issues. Bhutto, on her part, endeavored to undermine and destabilize the opposition, as well as the president, a strategy which proved ill-fated for her future support. In October 1989, the government managed to defeat a motion of nonconfidence. This highlighted the problems the Bhutto administration faced internally, and which escalated during the subsequent year up to her dismissal on August 6, 1990. New elections were carried out and Nawaz Sharif took over as prime minister.

During Sharif's government, Bhutto affiliated herself both with the president and the prime minister in order to destabilize the government. A power struggle between the president and Sharif resulted in the dismissal of both in 1993 and in October 1993 Bhutto was elected prime minister. This period in government was immersed in agitation and conflicts. The Bhutto family was split when Benazir Bhutto's brother, Murtaza, returned from exile and proclaimed being the true heir of their father. Their mother, Nusrat Bhutto, supported him and thus both of them were expelled from the party. Also Sharif initiated a campaign to undermine the government; the government, on its side, reciprocated by harassing the opposition. In addition, sectarian violence blossomed around country. Consequently, many PPP workers turned disillusioned and withdrew their support. The Bhutto government was accused for corruption, misrule, and nepotism, which resulted in its dismissal; to avoid trials on corruption Bhutto went into exile abroad.

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