Benazir bhutto

Benazir Bhutto, (born June 21, 1953, Karachi, Pak.—died Dec. 27, 2007, Rawalpindi), Pakistani politician, the first woman leader of a Muslim nation in modern history. After receiving an education at Harvard and Oxford, she led the political opposition to Pres. Zia-ul-Haq after the execution of her father, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, in 1979. She subsequently endured frequent house arrest (1979–84) and was exiled (1984–86). When Zia died in a plane crash in 1988, she became prime minister of a coalition government. She was unable to do much to combat Pakistan’s widespread poverty, governmental corruption, and increasing crime, and her government was dismissed in 1990 on charges of corruption and other malfeasance. A second stint as prime minister (1993–96) ended similarly. In 1999 she was convicted of taking kickbacks from a Swiss company and sentenced in absentia to five years in prison. In October 2007 Bhutto was granted a long-sought amnesty and returned to Pakistan. In December she was killed while campaigning for upcoming elections. Related Article Summaries

As Benazir Bhutto ’73 returned to Harvard in 1989 to give the Commencement address and receive an honorary degree, Peter W. Galbraith ’73, K ’78, recalled his attempt, on a Senate Foreign Relations Committee visit to Pakistan in 1981, to visit his classmate Bhutto in prison. Galbraith was not allowed to see her, and it would be another two and a half years before she would be freed. But Galbraith wrote of Bhutto's extraordinary life after her time as a political prisoner: In the space of twelve months, beginning in December 1987, she got married, designed and built a house, wrote and published a book, conducted a national election campaign, gave birth to a son, and took her first salaried job as leader of a strategically important country of one hundred million. Bhutto's father, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, was Pakistan's president from 1971 to 1973 (assuming the office during his daughter's junior year at Radcliffe). He was hanged in 1979. "I always knew Benazir would do well," Galbraith wrote. "And I thought her eventual leadership of Pakistan—assuming she was permitted to live—became inevitable" with her father's death. Bhutto served as prime minister from 1988 to 1990 and again from 1993 to 1996; she lived in exile from 1998 to 2007 and was assassinated in December 2007, two months after her return to Pakistan. She spoke about politics in her 1989 address, calling for a new international organization for the promotion of democracy and human rights worldwide: Bhutto quoted the ...

What It Takes What It Takes is an audio podcast produced by the American Academy of Achievement featuring intimate, revealing conversations with influential leaders in the diverse fields of endeavor: public service, science and exploration, sports, technology, business, arts and humanities, and justice. Social Justice: Leadership Lessons — for your Mac or iOS device on Apple Books The Social Justice iBook opens up the compelling, inspiring and selfless world of social justice, giving readers a better understanding of how empowering others, promoting equality and exposing injustice can change the very fabric of our society. Date of Death December 27, 2007 Benazir Bhutto was born in Karachi, Pakistan to a prominent political family. At age 16 she left her homeland to study at Harvard’s Radcliffe College. After completing her undergraduate degree at Radcliffe she studied at England’s Oxford University, where she was awarded a second degree in 1977. ZulfikarAli Bhutto (1928 -1979), the ninth Prime Minister of Pakistan, from 1973-1977, and the fourth President of Pakistan, from 1971-1973, and father of Benazir Bhutto. Later that year she returned to Pakistan, where her father, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, had been elected Prime Minister, but days after her arrival, the military seized power and her father was imprisoned. In 1979 he was hanged by the military government of General Zia Ul Haq. Bhutto herself was also arrested many times over the following years, and was detained for thre...

Security arrangements by Pakistan’s federal and local authorities to protect assassinated Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto were “fatally insufficient and ineffective” and subsequent investigations into her death were prejudiced and involved a whitewash, an independent United Nations inquiry reported today. Security arrangements by Pakistan’s federal and local authorities to protect assassinated Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto were “fatally insufficient and ineffective” and subsequent investigations into her death were prejudiced and involved a whitewash, an independent United Nations inquiry The UN Commission of Inquiry, appointed last year by Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon at the request of the Pakistani Government, reached no conclusion as to the organizers and sponsors behind the attack in which a 15-year-old suicide bomber blew up Ms. Bhutto’s vehicle in the city of Rawalpindi on 27 December 2007. But it found that the Government was quick to blame local Taliban commander Baitullah Mehsud and Al-Qaida although Ms. Bhutto’s foes potentially included elements from the establishment itself. “A range of Government officials failed profoundly in their efforts first to protect Ms. Bhutto and second to investigate with vigour all those responsible for her murder, not only in the execution of the attack, but also in its conception, planning and financing,” the Commission said. “Responsibility for Ms. Bhutto’s security on the day of her assassination rested with the federal Governmen...

About the Documentary Benazir Bhutto was one of the most complex and fascinating characters of our time. Hers is an epic tale of Shakespearean dimensions, of a privileged girl born into Pakistan’s equivalent of the Kennedy family. She would trade her Western lifestyle to become the first Muslim woman elected in history to lead an Islamic nation. Benazir Bhutto was born into a wealthy landowning family that became Pakistan’s dominant political dynasty. The Bhutto family’s painful history of triumph and tragedy has played out on an international stage. Educated at Harvard and Oxford, and with an eye on a foreign-service career, Benazir’s life changed forever when her father, Pakistan’s first democratically elected president, chose Benazir to carry his political mantle over the family’s eldest son. In the late 1970s, when Zulfikar Ali Bhutto was overthrown and executed by his handpicked Army Chief, Benazir swore to avenge her father and restore democracy — or to die trying. Benazir Bhutto may have broken the Islamic glass ceiling, but she was not liberated in all of the ways the Western world might expect; she was wed in a traditional arranged marriage to a notorious Karachi playboy, Asif Ali Zardari (who is now president of Pakistan). She served two terms in power as the Prime Minister of Pakistan marked by acts of courage and controversy. She eradicated polio and championed the rights of women while fighting the male-dominated political elite and a nervous military leadersh...