On This Day: Benazir Bhutto First Elected Prime Minister of Pakistan

Benazir Bhutto was born into a wealthy Pakistani political dynasty. Her father—Zulfikar Ali Bhutto—served as prime minister from 1973 until he was ousted by a military coup in 1977.

After her father was hanged on April 4, 1979, for allegedly conspiring to murder a political opponent, Bhutto left the country in self-imposed exile.

She returned to Pakistan in April 1986 to take the leadership of the political party her father had founded—the Pakistan People’s Party. After the 1988 election, Bhutto became the country’s first female prime minister.

Benazir Bhutto’s time in office was marred by controversy. Having twice served as prime minister, from 1988 to 1990 and from 1993 to 1996, she was dismissed by the president on both occasions over corruption allegations.

Although Bhutto steadfastly denied the charges, they nonetheless led to an 11-year exile from which she returned in October 2007.

Only two months after her return, Bhutto was assassinated by Pakistani Taliban operatives.

In 1998, The New York Times conducted a special report investigating the corruption charges brought against Bhutto and her husband. Many of the allegations centered on a collection of family documents that Bhutto’s political rivals purchased for $1 million from an unnamed intermediary source. According to the Times, “The documents leave uncertain the degree of involvement by Bhutto … But they trace the pervasive role of her husband, Asif Zardari, who turned his marriage to Bhutto into a source of virtually unchallengeable power.”

In an Aug. 15, 2007, discussion with Council on Foreign Relations president Richard N. Haass, Bhutto said that her country was in crisis: “a crisis that has its roots almost half a century ago, when the military in my country first seized power, in 1958 … I plan to return later this year to Pakistan to lead a democratic movement for the restoration of democracy. I seek to lead a democratic Pakistan which is free from the yoke of military dictatorship and that will cease to be a haven, the very petri dish of international terrorism.”

In a Nov. 14 Los Angeles Times op-ed titled “Aunt Benazir’s False Promises,” Fatima Bhutto derides her aunt’s democratic rhetoric: “By supporting Ms. Bhutto, who talks of democracy while asking to be brought to power by a military dictator, the only thing that will be accomplished is the death of the nascent secular democratic movement in my country. Democratization will forever be de-legitimized, and our progress in enacting true reforms will be quashed. We Pakistanis are sure of this.”

Benazir Bhutto argues in a Nov. 14 Washington Post op-ed that Musharraf’s emergency rule is a ploy to frustrate the country’s democratic process: “No date has been given for the lifting of emergency rule; the reconstitution of the election commission; the implementation of fair election practices; the removal of biased officials; or the suspension of the mayors, who control the guns and the funds—that is, police and government resources—to adversely influence elections … Musharraf knows how to crack down against pro-democracy forces. He is, however, unwilling or unable to track down and arrest Osama bin Laden or contain the extremists. This is the reality of Pakistan in November 2007.”

Benazir Bhutto was killed on Dec. 27, 2007, after she addressed a rally held by her supporters. 

She was shot at by a sniper while waving from the sunroof of her car. The car traveled a further 50 yards before being stopped by an explosion apparently set off by a suicide bomber. Detectives from Scotland Yard released a report saying that Bhutto probably died of a head injury from a bomb blast, not from a bullet.

Benazir Bhutto was born in 1953 in the Pakistani province of Sindh, and later attended Harvard and Oxford. She is the last politically active member of her family: both of her brothers—having been active in Pakistani politics—were murdered, Shahnawaz in 1985 and Mir Murtaza in 1996. The BBC provides a short profile of Bhutto.

The Islamic Republic of Pakistan was founded in 1947, and has since seen numerous military coups. In fact, Gen. Musharraf first came to power in the October 1999 coup that ousted the government of then Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif. The Economist provides historical, political and economic information about Pakistan.