Benazir Bhutto

Benazir Bhutto was a Pakistani politician and stateswoman who served as the 11th and 13th prime minister of Pakistan from 1988 to 1990 and again from 1993 to 1996. She was the first woman elected to head a democratic government in a Muslim-majority country. Ideologically a liberal and a secularist, she chaired or co-chaired the Pakistan People's Party (PPP) from the early 1980s until her assassination in 2007. Born into a wealthy aristocratic family, Bhutto was the daughter of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, a former prime minister and the founder of the PPP. She was educated at Harvard University and the University of Oxford, where she was the president of the Oxford Union. She returned to Pakistan in 1977, shortly before her father was ousted in a military coup and executed. Bhutto and her mother Nusrat took control of the PPP and led the country's Movement for the Restoration of Democracy. Bhutto was repeatedly imprisoned by Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq's military government and then self-exiled to Britain in 1984. She returned in 1986 and transformed the PPP's platform from a socialist to a liberal one, before leading it to victory in the 1988 election. She became the first female prime minister of Pakistan, but her government was dismissed by President Ghulam Ishaq Khan in 1990 on charges of corruption and incompetence. She was re-elected in 1993, but faced growing opposition from religious and ethnic groups, as well as from her own party members. She was accused of rigging the 1997 elections, which led to mass protests and a military coup by Gen. Pervez Musharraf. Bhutto was exiled again in 1999 and lived in Dubai and London. She returned to Pakistan in 2007, after reaching an agreement with Musharraf that granted her amnesty and allowed her to participate in the upcoming elections. She was welcomed by a large crowd of supporters, but also faced an assassination attempt that killed more than 100 people. She continued her political campaign, despite receiving death threats from Islamist militants. She was killed in a suicide bomb attack after addressing a rally in Rawalpindi on December 27, 2007. Her death sparked widespread protests and violence across the country. She is widely regarded as a charismatic and popular leader who championed the cause of democracy and social justice in Pakistan.