MOHTARMA Benazir Bhutto SHAHEED was the first democratically elected female leader of a Muslim country during a tumultuous life that ended with her assassination. The daughter of Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) founder and Prime Minister Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto, took over as a chairperson of the PPP in 1982. Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto spent several years in exile in London. When she back in 1986 in the tenure of Dictator Zia ul Huq, the whole Pakistani people received at Lahore. It was the real day for the life of PPP. Again she remains in exile and returned to Pakistan with plans to participate in the 2008 general election, but was killed during an attack at a PPP rally on 27th December 2007.
Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto returned to Pakistan in 1977 and was placed under house arrest after the military coup led by General Zia ul-Haq, overthrew her father’s government. She inherited her father’s leadership of the PPP. On 4th April 1979, the day was Shameful for the country, when the great leader of Muslim countries and Chairman of PPP were hanged in a disputed case. This black day will be never forgotten in the history of Pakistan.
There was more family tragedy in 1980 when Bhutto’s brother Shahnawaz Bhutto died in Paris. Another brother, Murtaza Bhutto died in 1996 in a gun battle with police in Karachi.
Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto returned to Pakistan on October 17, 2007, at Karachi and was warmly well come by party JIYLAS and was hit by a suicide attack, killing near 170 people. She only survived after ducking down at the moment of impact behind her armored vehicle. Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto was killed when an assassin fired shots and then blew himself up after an election campaign rally in Rawalpindi on December 27, 2007. The attack also killed 28 others and wounded at least another 100. The attacker struck just minutes after Bhutto addressed a rally of thousands of supporters in the garrison city of Rawalpindi. Thousands of mourners paid last respects to former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto on December 28, 2007, as she was buried at her family’s mausoleum in Garhi Khuda Bakhsh, Larkana province of Sindh. Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf announced three days of mourning. Bhutto’s husband, Asif Ali Zardari, her three children and her sister Sanam attended the burial. Benazir Bhutto was buried alongside her father Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto, Pakistan’s first popularly elected prime minister.
Pakistan’s Interior Ministry also revealed that it had irrefutable evidence showing that al-Qaeda was behind Bhutto’s assassination. The government had recorded an intelligence intercept in which al Qaeda leader Baitullah Mehsud congratulated his people for carrying out this cowardly act. Mehsud has denied involvement.
Benazir Bhutto was a BRAVE daughter of BRAVE father Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto, Pakistan’s first women democratically elected prime minister. Benazir went on to become Prime Minister twice but she was always distrusted by power planner, which used corruption allegations to remove her from power.
At the time of her death, she was making a bid for a third term as prime minister. The assassination caused widespread civil unrest in Pakistan. Bhutto’s supporters took to the streets, putting up roadblocks, lighting fires and chanting anti-Pakistan slogans.
We never forget her for the cause of DEMOCRACY in the military Government of Dictator Zia Ul Huq. She remains many times in the Jail for Democracy. Though she is no more with us, her vision will alive PPP for the poor people of Pakistan. I met SHAHEED MOHTARMMA BENAZIR BHUTTO many times, she was really anxious for poor masses and she loved for Country.
The writer is MBBS; MAS (Master in Health Services Management), Retired from Health Department Govt. of Sindh / Writer
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