Benazir Bhutto

Benazir Bhutto (born June 21, 1953) became the first woman to lead a Muslim country in modern times when she was elected Prime Minister of Pakistan in 1988, only to be deposed 20 months later by the President of Pakistan Ghulam Ishaq Khan using the 8th Amendment to dissolve the parliament and allowing for re-elections within 90 days. She was re-elected in 1993 but was dismissed three years later amid various corruption scandals by the then President of Pakistan Farooq Leghari again using his discretionary powers under the 8th Amendment. Some of these scandals involve contracts awarded to Swiss companies during her regime. She was convicted by a Swiss court and has filed a petition on the decision which remain unresolved. Her husband, Asif Ali Zardari, has been implicated as well, and remained in jail until November 2004.

Early Years

The daughter of former Pakistani premier Zulfikar Ali Bhutto and the Iranian-Kurdish-born Nusrat Bhutto, Benazir was educated in the west, notably at Radcliffe College, where she was elected to Phi Beta Kappa, and Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford. She temporarily left Radcliffe for New York City in 1971, when India sent troops into East Pakistan -- soon to be called Bangladesh -- and her father, as Pakistan's foreign minister, travelled to the United Nations to resolve the issue. Benazir Bhutto joined her father in New York City and acted as a kind of assistant to him. This seems to have been a formative experience for her, in that watching her father in action brought her out of academia and showed her the ways of power politics. Her remaining years in the United States included active participation in various social causes.

Related Topics:
Pakistan - Zulfikar Ali Bhutto - Iranian - Kurdish - Nusrat Bhutto - Radcliffe College - Phi Beta Kappa - Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford - 1971 - India - East Pakistan - Bangladesh - United Nations - New York City - Power politics

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

During her time at Oxford, she was the first Asian woman to be President of the Oxford Union, after the election had to be re-run because she accused her rival of illegal canvassing. Her entire undergraduate career was fuelled by controversy, coming in the middle of a period when her father's administration was being challenged both at home and abroad.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~