Biography Of Benazir Bhutto – Free PDF Download -

Table of Contents

EARLY LIFE

Bhutto was born on 21 June 1953 in the Pakistani city of Karachi. Her father was the politician Zulfikar Ali Bhutto and her mother was Begum Nusrat Ispahani.
Zulfikar was the son of Shah Nawaz Bhutto, a prominent politician who had served as Prime Minister of the Junagadh State.
The Bhuttos were aristocratic,wealthy landlords from Sindh. Benazir was their first child,Their three younger children were: Murtaza (born 1954), Sanam (1957), and Shahnawaz (1958).

EARLY LIFE

Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, Benazir’s father, was Prime Minister of Pakistan and founding chairman of the PPP.
Benazir’s first language was English; as a child she spoke Urdu less frequently, and barely spoke the local Sindhi language.
Benazir initially attended the Lady Jennings Nursery School in Karachi. She was then sent to the Convent of Jesus and Mary in Karachi and from there to the Jesus and Mary Convent, a boarding school in Murree.

ZULFIKAR ALI BHUTTO

In 1968 Zulfikar was arrested and imprisoned for three months, during which he wrote to Benazir to encourage her studies.
From 1969 to 1973, Bhutto studied for an undergraduate degree at Radcliffe College, Harvard University.
At Harvard, Bhutto majored in comparative government and graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in 1973.
In December 1971, Zulfikar assumed the presidency of Pakistan, the first democratically elected leader after 13 years of military rule.

EDUCATION

In 1972, Benazir accompanied her father to the India-Pakistan Summit in Simla as a replacement for her mother, who was ill. There, she was introduced to the Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi.
In autumn 1973, Bhutto relocated to the United Kingdom and began studying for a second undergraduate degree, in Philosophy, Politics and Economics, at Lady Margaret Hall, University of Oxford.
Despite the ongoing tensions between Pakistan and India, she interacted socially with Indian students.After her Oxford education, she returned to Pakistan in June 1977, where she was scheduled to work at the Prime Minister’s office and the “Inter-Provincial Council of Common Interests” during the rest of the summer.[TROUBLED PAKISTAN
In July 1977, Zulfikar Bhutto—who had just been re-elected in a general election—was overthrown in a military coup led by General Muhammad Zia-ul–Haq.
Zulfikar, too, was arrested, initially for less than a month.After a crowd of over one million people greeted Zulfikar’s release in Karachi and demonstrations were held in support of the ousted president, Zia decided to eliminate him permanently.
In September, Zulfikar was re-arrested and charged with the murder of Muhammad Ahmed Khan Kasuri.Bhutto and her mother remained in Pakistan.
He was executed in April 1979.Bhutto and Nusrat were then imprisoned for six months, before being released and placed under house arrest for a further six months. The two women were only fully released in April 1980. TROUBLED PAKISTAN
After the coup, Zulfikar had appointed his wife co-chair of the PPP,while in October 1977 Benazir was appointed to the PPP’s central committee.Benazir replaced his role in the party.
In July 1981, Nusrat was released so that she could seek medical treatment for cancer abroad, but Bhutto was not.
She was kept for a time in Karachi before being moved to Sukkur prison and then back again to Karachi. During much of this period, she was held in solitary confinement.As international pressure mounted, the Pakistani government agreed to release her.

EXILE

While in exile, Bhutto lived in central London’s Barbican Estate. Her flat became the unofficial headquarters of its members in exile; these volunteers devoted themselves to raising international awareness of the political prisoners being held by Zia’s regime.
In July 1985, Shahnawaz died under unexplained circumstances in the French city of Cannes.In December 1985, martial law was lifted in Pakistan and Bhutto decided to return home.
She arrived at Lahore Airport in April 1986, where she was greeted by a large crowd.she was again arrested and detained for several weeks in Landhi Jail.

ELECTIONS OF 1988

Back in Pakistan, she agreed to an arranged marriage; her mother selected Asif Ali Zardari as a suitable husband.The marriage ceremony took place in Karachi in December 1987.
In May 1988, Zia dissolved the assemblies and called a November election. In August, Zia suddenly died when his aircraft crashed.
Bhutto led the PPP to victory in the election, She was sworn in as the Prime Minister of Pakistan on 2 December 1988.Bhutto became the first female Prime Minister in a Muslim-majority country,as well as the youngest elected leader in the Islamic world.

PRIME MINISTER

There was hope among many observers that her premiership would mark a new era of multi-party democracy, growing gender equality, and better relations with India.
In 1988, Bhutto published her autobiography, sub-titled Daughter of the East. Bhutto’s first cabinet was the largest in Pakistan’s history.
She appointed herself as the new treasury minister, with her mother as a senior minister without portfolio, and her father-in-law as chairman of the parliamentary public accounts committee.

PRIME MINISTER

Most of those in the administration had little political experience.Bhutto was able to ensure the release of a number of political prisoners detained under the Zia government.
In April 1989, opposition parties organised a parliamentary no-confidence vote in Bhutto’s leadership, but it was defeated by 12 votes.
Throughout her first term, Bhutto was criticised for being indecisive and unable to maintain control. In August 1990, President dismissed Bhutto’s government under the Eighth Amendment of the constitution.

PRIME MINISTER

In the 1990 general election, the PPP only secured 45 of the 217 seats.Bhutto became the leader of the opposition.
In 1993, Bhutto declared herself as chair of the PPP for life.In the October 1993 general election, the PPP won the most seats,although it fell short of an outright majority, with 86 seats.
Sharif’s new party, the Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz), came second with 73 seats.She was officially sworn in on 19 October 1993.

TROUBLED BHUTTO

On 4 November 1996, Bhutto’s government was dismissed by President Leghari primarily because of corruption.
Newly re-elected, Sharif moved quickly to curtail the powers of the presidency and judiciary.He also removed the constitution’s Eighth Amendment.
In 1999, Pervez Musharraf launched a military coup and became President.In April 1999, the Ehtesab Bench of the Lahore High Court convicted Bhutto in absentia, giving her a five years prison sentence, an $8.6 million fine, and disqualifying her from public office.

LATER

Bhutto spent much of her time in exile fighting the corruption charges that were being brought against her and her husband. She also campaigned for his release from prison.
Musharraf also consolidated power around himself; in June 2001 he appointed himself to the Presidency, holding this position alongside his positions as chief executive and chief of the army staff.
In a 2002 referendum, Musharraf extended his presidential mandate for a further five years.Musharraf agreed to release Zardari in November 2004 as a symbol of good will; following his release, Zardari travelled to New York.

RETURN TO PAKISTAN

The US and UK had supported Musharraf because of his role in assisting their War on Terror—especially the War in Afghanistan.
Concerned about the instability of their ally, the U.S. government pushed Musharraf to meet with Bhutto and come to an arrangement that might strengthen his legitimacy.This was also encouraged by the UK government.
In October 2007, Musharraf was elected President by Pakistan’s parliament. Bhutto returned to Pakistan in October 2007, arriving in Karachi.

RETURN TO PAKISTAN

Bhutto described the main problem facing her country as the clash between “moderation and extremism“.While her cavalcade was making its way through a crowd in Karachi, two bombs went off, killing 149 and injuring 402. Bhutto herself was physically unharmed.
In early December, Bhutto met with Sharif to publicise their demand that Musharraf fulfil his promise to lift the state of emergency before January’s parliamentary elections,On 16 December, Musharraf did so.
Bhutto announced that the PPP would campaign on “the five E’s”: employment, education, energy, environment, and equality.

ASSASINATION

On the morning of 27 December 2007, Bhutto met with Afghan President Hamid Karzai. In the afternoon, she gave a speech at a PPP rally held in Rawalpindi’s Liaquat National Bagh.
On leaving in a bulletproof vehicle, she opened the car’s escape hatch and stood up to wave to the surrounding crowds.
A man stood within two to three metres of the car, fired three gunshots at her, and detonated a suicide vest packed with ball bearings. Bhutto was fatally injured and Bhutto was rushed to Rawalpindi General Hospital but was clinically dead on arrival.

AFTERMATH

In the wake of Bhutto’s death, the election was postponed from January to February 2008, when it resulted in the formation of a coalition government bringing together the PPP and the Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz).
There was never a smoking gun in the Bhutto investigation. Many in Pakistan had reasons for wanting Bhutto dead; her killing was advantageous to both the military establishment and to the Islamic fundamentalists who despised her.