Hundreds of thousands of mourners paid last good wishes to former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto on Friday, 28Dec2007. She was buried at her family's mausoleum in Garhi Khuda Bakhsh, the southern province of Sindh. The attacker struck just minutes after Bhutto addressed a rally of thousands of supporters in Rawalpindi, 8 miles south of Islamabad. She died after hitting her head on part of her vehicle's sunroof and not as a result of bullets a spokesman of Pakistani ministry said it.
Benazir Bhutto, the eldest child of Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto, was born on 21June1953, at Karachi. She attended “Lady Jennings Nursery School” and then “Convent of Jesus and Mary” in Karachi. After two years of education at the “Rawalpindi Presentation Convent”, she was sent to the “Jesus and Mary Convent” at Murree. She passed her O-level examination at the age of 15. In April 1969, she got admission in the U.S.A at Harvard University's Radcliffe College. In June 1973, Benazir Bhutto graduated from Harvard University with a degree in “Political Science”. After graduating from Harvard, Benazir Bhutto joined Oxford University in the fall of 1973. Just before graduation, she was elected to the Standing Committee of the most prestigious “Oxford Union Debating Society”.
Benazir Bhutto returned to Pakistan in June 1977. She wanted to join the Foreign Service but her father wanted her to compete in the National Assembly Election. As she was not yet of age to contest so she primarily started with assisting her father as a political advisor. In July 1977, General Zia-ul-Haq imposed Martial Law. During the Martial Law, Benazir Bhutto was permitted to go abroad on medical grounds in January 1984, after spending nearly six and a half years in jail. She went into exile in England for two years.
In July 1984, her younger brother Shah Nawaz died under strange circumstances in Paris. She came back to Pakistan to attend his burial ceremony. A year later she came back to Pakistan to fight the elections for National and Provincial Assemblies held by General Zia-ul-Haq. When she returned on 10April1986, one million people welcomed her at the Lahore airport. She attended massive rallies all over Pakistan and kept in close touch with the “Movement for Restoration of Democracy”.
In July 1984, her younger brother Shah Nawaz died under strange circumstances in Paris. She came back to Pakistan to attend his burial ceremony. A year later she came back to Pakistan to fight the elections for National and Provincial Assemblies held by General Zia-ul-Haq. When she returned on 10April1986, one million people welcomed her at the Lahore airport. She attended massive rallies all over Pakistan and kept in close touch with the “Movement for Restoration of Democracy”.
Benazir Bhutto married to a wealthy landowner, Asif Ali Zardari, in Karachi on 18December1987. The couple had three children: A son Bilawal and two daughters, Bakhtawar and Aseefa. She became the first ever female prime minister of a Muslim nation on 1Dec1988.
In 1990 she was found herself in court protecting her against several charges of corruption while in office. She continued to be a prominent focus of opposition discontent, and ultimately won a further election in 1993. But unfortunately was replaced in 1996 due to several charges again against her and her husband. While in self-imposed exile in Britain and Dubai, she was condemn misconduct and verdict to three years in prison in 1999. She continued to direct her party from abroad, being re-affirmed as “Pakistan People’s Party” leader in 2002.
Benazir Bhutto came back to Pakistan on 18October2007, after President Musharraf approved her official pardon on all corruption charges, opening the way for her return and a possible power-sharing agreement. Mournfully her homecoming rally after eight years in exile was hit by a suicide attack. She was rushed to the hospital, but soon succumbed to injuries suffered in the attack. The loss of the country's most popular democratic leader has plunged Pakistan into turmoil that intensifying the dangerous instability of a nuclear-armed nation in a highly volatile region more.
Currently her son is acting as a chairman of the Pakistan People’s Party. Her husband is in service of Pakistanis in the form of President of Pakistan. Along with the ability of being a prudent political leader she has numerous roles to play on the stage of life as an obedient daughter, loyal wife, amicable mother, smashing personality, realistic writer and a dedicated lecturer. Her publications include "Daughter of the East" and "Foreign Policy Perspective".
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