Inspirational Quotes by Benazir Bhutto (Pakistani Politician)

Benazir Bhutto (1953–2007) was a Pakistani politician who served two terms as Pakistan’s prime minister 1988–90, 1993–96. She was the first woman leader of a Muslim nation in modern history.

Born in Karachi, Bhutto was the daughter of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, who served as Pakistan’s president 1971–73 and Prime Minister 1973–77. Benazir was educated at Radcliffe College (Harvard University.) She also studied philosophy, political science, and economics at Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford University. In 1976, she was elected president of Oxford Union, becoming the first Asian woman to head this prestigious debating society.

After Zulfikar Ali Bhutto’s execution in 1979, Benazir Bhutto became the Pakistan People’s Party’s figurehead. Over the following decade, she mobilized opposition to the martial law regime but was regularly under house arrest until 1984. Bhutto returned to Pakistan after years of exile. She emerged as the most prominent political figure opposing military dictator General Mohammad Zia-ul-Haq.

After Zia-ul-Haq died in mysterious circumstances in a plane crash, Bhutto won the prime minister’s position in 1988, still only 35. Her political opponents and the military worked hard to weaken her new government. She was dismissed twice on charges of corruption.

After a defeat in the 1997 election, Bhutto was sentenced to five years’ imprisonment for corruption. She fell into self-imposed exile in London and Dubai in the late 1990s. Granted amnesty in 2007, she returned to Karachi, only to be assassinated two months later in a suicide attack in Rawalpindi.

Bhutto’s autobiography is Daughter of the East (1988.) Her Reconciliation: Islam, Democracy, and the West (2008) was published posthumously. Several collections of her speeches and works have been compiled, including The Way Out (1988.) Indian politician and cleric Rafiq Zakaria wrote The Trial of Benazir Bhutto (1990.)

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