Rise And Fall

Benazir Bhutto made her grand return to Pakistan after her self-imposed exile in 1986 with a million people waiting for her at the airport she was to arrive at. However, her momentous homecoming was yet to come; in a bizarre twist of fate, General Zia’s plane exploded while airborne, killing him and most of the senior members of the military. With his death, the momentum towards elections and democracy grew. With Bhutto at the helm, the PPP won the elections for the National Parliament as well as the Provincial Assembly. On December 2, 1988 she took office as the first woman Prime Minister in the Muslim world.

"This was not my moment, but the moment for all who had made sacrifices for democracy. The people of Pakistan had rejected bigotry and prejudice in electing a woman prime minister." 

---Benazir Bhutto

Bhutto's party promised to remove the last traces of feudalism from Pakistan and to run the government in accordance with socialist principals. She also promised to repeal provisions of Pakistani law that restrict women's freedom and did not allow them to vote or hold the same rights as males but unfortunately, her government was unable to overcome conservative opposition in parliament.

Benazir Bhutto with Margaret Thatcher

Benazir Bhutto was dismissed from her position as Pakistan's Prime Minister in 1990 for charges of corruption and bad governance. Her husband Asif Ali Zardari became known as "Mr. Ten Percent" in her tenure because of allegations that he extorted that percentage, ten percent, from people seeking to do business with the Pakistani government. Bhutto's human rights record was dismal at this time with her political opponents being harassed and people abducted and killed, including her brother Murtaza.

Murtaza Bhutto

Benazir Bhutto was reelected into the position of Prime Minister again in 1993 and dismissed again upon corruption charges involving her husband. She went into exile for eight years returning in 2007 to stand for reelection. Unfortunately, she was assassinated on 27 December 2007 in Rawalpindi.

Bhutto at Rawalpindi

Benazir Bhutto’s meteoric rise was due to her skills of mass mobilization, regime confrontation and political astuteness. She was effective and skillful as a leader, had charisma and had perseverance and determination towards achieving democracy for Pakistan.  Associated Press of Pakistan reported Prime Minister Syed Yusuf Raza Gilani's words on this third, death anniversary "a classic study of courage, commitment towards people's welfare, and steel like determination to accomplish the goals she set before herself." Her fall was due to her incompetence in management of the affairs of state and her misuse of power. She was effective and skillful as a leader of the opposition – a revolutionary, but found lacking as a consensus-building leader and an effective head of government. At the end she gave up her life for restoration of democracy in Pakistan.