'Daughter of the East': Benazir Bhutto remembered on 68th birthday

Benazir Bhutto served as Prime Minister of Pakistan twice, from 1988 to 1990 and again from 1993 to 1996.

She studied at Harvard University and the University of Oxford, where she was President of the Oxford Union and subsequently studied philosophy, political science, and economics.

Bhutto was the first woman leader of Muslim nation in modern history.

After her father, Zulifqar Ali Bhutto’s execution in 1979 during the rule of Mohammad Zia-ul-Haq, she became the head of her father’s party, the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP).

The great lady endured frequent house arrest from 1979 to 1984.

In exile from 1984 to 1986, Bhutto returned to Pakistan after the lifting of martial law and became the foremost figure in the political opposition to Zia.

However, President Zia-ul-Haq died in August 1988 in a mysterious plane crash.

Resultantly, PPP won the single largest bloc of seats in the National Assembly (NA) and Benazir Bhutto became the Prime Minister on December 1, 1988.

In August 1990, Pakistan’s President, Ghulam Ishaq Khan, dismissed her government on charges of corruption and called for new elections.

The PPP suffered a defeat in the national elections of October 1990. Hence, she led the parliamentary opposition against Nawaz Sharif.

In October 1993, the PPP won a plurality of votes, and she again became head of a coalition government.

Conversely, under allegations of corruption, economic mismanagement, and a decline of law her government was dismissed in November 1996 by President Farooq Leghari.

Following the dismissal, she went abroad in self-imposed exile.

In 2007, Benazir returned to Karachi from Dubai after eight years of self-imposed exile.

Celebrations marking her return were blemished by a suicide attack on her motorcade, in which various supporters were killed.

Shaheed Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto was assassinated in December in a similar attack while campaigning for parliamentary elections.

Meanwhile, PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari paid tribute to Shaheed Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto offered prayers.