Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto Shaheed was the first democratically elected female leader of a Muslim country, leading a tumultuous life that ended with her assassination. She was the daughter of Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) founder and Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto. Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto took over as the chairperson of the PPP in 1982. Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto spent several years in exile in London. When she came back in 1986, in the tenure of Zia ul Haq, the people rejoiced and went to receive her in Lahore.
However, again she went 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.
Shaheed Benazir Bhutto was born on June 21, 1953, in Karachi. She was the eldest child of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto. After completing her early education in Pakistan, she pursued her higher education in the United States and then went on to study at Oxford. There, she completed a course in International Law and Diplomacy.
Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto returned to Pakistan in 1977, and was placed under house arrest after the military coup led by General Zia ul-Haq, he overthrew her father’s government. However, she inherited her father’s leadership of the PPP. Fourth April 1979, was a black day for the country, when the great leader of Muslim countries and the Chairman of PPP were hanged in a disputed case. This day will be never forgotten in the history of Pakistan.
The attacker struck minutes after Bhutto addressed a rally of thousands of supporters in the city of Rawalpindi. Thousands of mourners paid their last respects to the former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto on December 28, 2007
The family again faced dark days in 1980, when Bhutto’s brother Shahnawaz Bhutto died in Paris. Another brother, Murtaza Bhutto died in 1996, in a gun battle with the police in Karachi.
Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto married with Mr. Asif Ali Zardari, in Karachi on December 18, 1987. Zia ul-Haq’s dictatorship ended when he was killed in a plane crash in 1988. Benazir Bhutto was elected as the first ever female prime minister of a Muslim nation on December 1, 1988, and later on she won again and was elected in 1993, but was replaced in 1996. Once again she was exiled and went to the UK and UAE, during the tenure of another Dictator Pervez Musharraf.
Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto returned to Pakistan on October 17, 2007, at Karachi and was warmly welcomed by the party, but place targeted by a suicide attack, killing near 150 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 minutes after Bhutto addressed a rally of thousands of supporters in the city of Rawalpindi. Thousands of mourners paid their last respects to the 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 Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, Pakistan’s first popularly elected prime minister.
The shooting and bombing attack on the charismatic former prime minister plunged Pakistan into turmoil. Pakistan is armed with nuclear weapons and is a key US ally in the war on terror. Furious supporters rampaged through several cities, torching cars, trains and stores in violence that left at least 23 dead. Pakistan’s election commission announced on January 2, 2008, that parliamentary elections were postponed till February 18.
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 the Al-Qaeda leader Baitullah Mehsud congratulated his people for carrying out this cowardly act. However, Mehsud denied any involvement.
Benazir Bhutto was a brave daughter of a brave father Zulfikar Ali Bhutto. Benazir went on to become Prime Minister twice but she was always distrusted by the power planners, who used corruption allegations to remove her from power.
At the time of her death, she was making a bid for a third term as the prime minister. The assassination caused widespread civil unrest in Pakistan.
We will never forget her. Though she is no more with us, her vision will live on in PPP for the poor people of Pakistan. I met Shaheed Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto many times, and she always showed her love for the country and the poor masses. The PPP leadership and its worker must look retrospectively into what they need to do to further strengthen the Party in Pakistan.
The writer is a retired doctor of the Sindh Health Department
Published in Daily Times, December 27th 2018.