Benazir Bhutto
Encyclopedia
Benazir Bhutto was a democratic socialist
who served as the 11th Prime Minister of Pakistan
in two non-consecutive terms from 1988 until 1990 and 1993 until 1996.
In 1982, at age 29, Benazir Bhutto became the chairwoman of the Pakistan Peoples Party
(PPP)—a democratic socialist
, centre-left party, making her the first woman in Pakistan to head a major political party. In 1988, she became the first woman elected to lead a Muslim state
and was also Pakistan's first (and thus far, only) female prime minister. Noted for her charismatic authority
and political astuteness, Benazir Bhutto drove initiatives for Pakistan's economy
and national security, and she implemented social capitalist
policies for industrial development and growth. In addition, her political philosophy and economic policies emphasized deregulation
(particularly of the financial sector), flexible labor markets, the denationalization of state-owned corporations, and the withdrawal of subsidies to others. Benazir Bhutto's popularity waned amid recession, corruption, and high unemployment which later led to the dismissal
of her government by conservative President
Ghulam Ishaq Khan
.
In 1993, Benazir Bhutto was re-elected for a second term after the 1993 parliamentary elections
. She survived an attempted coup d'état in 1995
, and her hard line against the trade unions and tough rhetoric opposition to her domestic political rivals and to neighboring India earned her the nickname "Iron Lady
"; she is also respectfully referred to as B.B. In 1996, the charges of corruption
leveled against her led to the final dismissal of her government by President Farooq Leghari
. Benazir Bhutto conceded her defeat in the 1997 Parliamentary elections
and went into self-imposed exile in Dubai
, United Arab Emirates
in 1998.
After nine years of self-exile, she returned to Pakistan on 18 October 2007, after having reached an understanding with Military President General Pervez Musharraf
, by which she was granted amnesty and all corruption charges were withdrawn. Benazir Bhutto was assassinated
on 27 December 2007, after leaving PPP's last rally in the city of Rawalpindi
, two weeks before the scheduled Pakistani general election of 2008
in which she was a leading opposition candidate. The following year, she was named one of seven winners of the United Nations Prize in the Field of Human Rights
.
, Dominion of Pakistan on 21 June 1953. She was the eldest child of former prime minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto
, a Pakistani of Sindhi
descent, and Begum Nusrat Ispahani
, an Iranian born Pakistani Shia Muslim of Kurdo-Persian descent. Her paternal grandfather was Sir Shah Nawaz Bhutto.
Bhutto was raised to speak both English
and Urdu
; English was her first language and while her Urdu was fluent it was often also ungrammatical. Despite her family being Sindhi speakers, her Sindhi skills were almost non-existent.
She attended the Lady Jennings Nursery School and Convent of Jesus and Mary
in Karachi. After two years of schooling at the Rawalpindi Presentation Convent, she was sent to the Jesus and Mary Convent
at Murree
. She passed her O-level
examinations at the age of 15. She then went on to complete her A-Levels at the Karachi Grammar School
.
After completing her early education in Pakistan, she pursued her higher education in the United States
. From 1969 to 1973 she attended Radcliffe College
at Harvard University
, where she obtained a Bachelor of Arts degree
with cum laude honors in comparative government. She was also elected to Phi Beta Kappa. Bhutto would later call her time at Harvard "four of the happiest years of my life" and said it formed "the very basis of her belief in democracy". Later in 1995 as Prime Minister, she would arrange a gift from the Pakistani government to Harvard Law School
. In June 2006, she received an Honorary LL.D degree from the University of Toronto.
The next phase of her education took place in the United Kingdom
. Between 1973 and 1977 Bhutto studied Philosophy, Politics, and Economics
at Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford
, during which time she completed additional courses in International Law
and Diplomacy
. After LMH she attended St Catherine's College, Oxford
and in December 1976 she was elected president of the Oxford Union
, becoming the first Asian woman to head the prestigious debating society.
On 18 December 1987, she married Asif Ali Zardari
in Karachi. The couple had three children: two daughters, Bakhtawar and Asifa, and a son, Bilawal. When she gave birth to Bakhtawar in 1990, she became the first modern head of government to give birth while in office.
Zulfikar Ali Bhutto
, was removed from office following a military coup in 1977 led by the then chief of army
General Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq
, who imposed martial law
but promised to hold elections within three months. Nevertheless, instead of fulfilling the promise of holding general elections, General Zia charged Bhutto with conspiring to murder the father of dissident politician Ahmed Raza Kasuri
. Mr. Zulfikar Ali Bhutto was sentenced to death by the martial law court.
Despite the accusation being "widely doubted by the public", and many clemency appeals from foreign leaders, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto was hanged on 4 April 1979. Appeals for clemency were dismissed by acting President General Zia. Benazir Bhutto and her mother were held in a "police camp" until the end of May, after the execution.
and mother
founded difficult to struggle against the ruthless military dictatorship of Zia-ul-Haq. Benazir Bhutto and her younger brother Murtaza Bhutto
spent the next eighteen months in and out of house arrest
as she struggled to rally political support to force General Zia-ul-Haq to drop murder charges against her father. General Zia-ul-Haq ignored worldwide appeals for clemency and had Zulfikar Bhutto hanged in April 1979 despite appeals of clemency were called worldwide. Following the hanging of her father, Benazir Bhutto was arrested repeatedly, however, following PPP's victory in the local elections Zia postponed the national elections indefinitely and moved Benazir Bhutto and her mother Nusrat Bhutto from Karachi to Larkana. This was the seventh time that Benazir Bhutto had been arrested within two years of the military coup. After repeatedly placing her under house arrest, the regime finally imprisoned her under solitary confinement in a desert cell in Sindhi province during the summer of 1981. She described the conditions in her wall-less cage in her book "Daughter of Destiny", which goes by the title of "Daughter of the East" in Commonwealth countries for copyright reasons:
After her six month imprisonment in Sukkur jail, she remained hospitalized for months after which she was shifted to Karachi Central Jail
, where she remained imprisoned until 11 December 1981. She was then placed under house arrests in Larkana and Karachi for eleven and fourteen months respectively.
who was brutally poisoned a local hotel at Nice' France
. The Bhutto family believed that this was done under the hidden directives of General Zia-ul-Haq, prompting Zulfikar Bhutto's children to hide.
Further pressure from the international community forced General Zia to hold elections, for a unicameral legislature on a non-party basis. The Benazir Bhutto thus announced a boycott of the election on the grounds that they were not being held in accordance with the constitution of Pakistan. She continued to raise her voice against human rights violations by the regime and addressed the European Parliament in Strasbourg in 1985. In retaliation to the speech, Zia announced death sentences for 54 workers of her party at a military court in Lahore headed by Zia himself.
Benazir Bhutto, who had returned to Pakistan after completing her studies, found herself placed under house arrest
in the wake of her father's imprisonment and subsequent execution. Having been allowed to return to the United Kingdom
in 1984, she became a leader in exile of the People's Party of Pakistan (PPP). For the first time in the history of Pakistan, Benazir Bhutto was the first woman to head a major political party though she was unable to make her political presence felt in Pakistan until after the death of General Zia-ul-Haq
. She had succeeded her mother as leader of the PPP and the pro-democracy opposition to the General Zia-ul-Haq regime.
of India. Sardar Wahid Bux won, and became not only the first elected representative from Sindh to a democratically elected parliament, but also the youngest member of the Central Legislative Assembly, aged 27. Wahid Bux's achievement was monumental as it was he who was the first Bhutto elected to a government, from a seat that would, thereafter always be contested by his family members.
Therefore, it was he who provided the breakthrough and a start to this cycle. Sardar Wahid Bux went on to be elected to the Bombay Council as well. After Wahid Bux's untimely and mysterious death at the age of 33, his younger brother Nawab Nabi Bux Bhutto contested from the same seat and remained undefeated until retirement. It was Nabi Bux who then gave this seat to Zulfikar Ali Bhutto to contest in 1970. On 16 November 1988, in the first open political elections in more than a decade were held, and Benazir Bhutto securing the victory in major provinces of Pakistan and had the largest percentile for the seats in the National Assembly
— a lower house of Parliament.
, Benazir Bhutto addresses the huge crowd:
Initially, Benazir Bhutto formed a coalition government
, formed with MQM— a liberal forrces, as her ally, on 2 December. However at time passes, Bhutto successfully and quietly isolated MQM from government influence, and later ousted MQM from her government, establishing a single party government and claiming the entire mandate from all of Pakistan. During this time, the effects of General Zia's domestic policies
began to arise in the country, which she founded difficult to counter. During her first term, Benazir Bhutto vowed to repeal the controversial Hudood Ordinance
and to revert the Eight Amendment
to the Constitution of Pakistan
. Benazir Bhutto also promised to shift Pakistan's Semi-presidential system
to Parliamentary system
. But none of the reforms were made and Benazir began to struggle with conservative President Ghulam Ishaq Khan
over the issues of executive authorities. President Khan vetoed laws and ordinances as he saw that these laws were being proposed and made to lessen Presidential authority. Benazir Bhutto's accomplishments during this time were in initiatives for nationalist reform and modernization, that some conservatives characterized as Westernization.
, and closely aligned with the United States
President George H. Bush
, based on mutual their distrust of Communism
, although she strongly opposed United States support of Afghan Mujaheddin which she labeled them as "America's Frankestein" during her first state visit to United States in 1989. Benazir Bhutto's government oversaw and witnessed the major events in the alignment of the world. On the Western fronts, the Soviet Union
was withdrawing
its combatant forces in Afghan Socialist Soviet Republic and the United States-Pakistan alliance had broken off with the United States suspicions on nuclear weapons, in 1990. Benazir Bhutto deliberately attempted to warm the relations with neighboring India and met with Rajiv Gandhi
in 1989 where she negotiated for a trade agreement when the Indian Premier paid a farewell visit to Pakistan. The goodwill relations with India continued until 1990 after V. P. Singh
succeeded Gandhi as Premier. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)
influence on Singh forced him to abrogate with agreements, and the tensions began to arise with Pakistan after BJP forced its hardline policies on Kashmir to Pakistan. Soon, the V.P. Singh administration launched the military operation in Kashmir to curbed the liberation movement. As in response, Benazir gave authorization for alleged covert and operations to support Kashmiri succession movements in Indian Kashmir , but in 1990, Major-General Pervez Musharraf
who was the Director-General
of the Directorate-General for the Military Operations (DGMO), persuaded to Benazir Bhutto and proposed a strategic plan against India. It was a plan for a Kargil Infiltration, but Benazir asked General Musharraf how the international pressure would be countered. Musharraf remained silence, therefore Benazir rebuffed the plan. In 1988, Lieutenant-General Hamid Gul met with the Prime minister and advocated for the plan of supporting the Khalistan movement
, a Sikh
nationalist movement. General Gul justified his actions as this movement as the only way of preempting a fresh Indian threat to Pakistan's territorial integrity. Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto disagreed with his views and asked him to stop playing this "Card". General Gul refused and, politely told the Prime minister Benazir Bhutto in mocking French accent
that, "Madame' Prime minister, keeping [Indian] Punjab destabilized is equivalent... to the Pakistan Army
.... having an extra division at no cost to the taxpayers...".
On the Western front, Benazir Bhutto also approved and authorized further aggressive military operations in Afghanistan to topple the fragile communist regime and the Soviet influence in the region
. One of her notable military authorization was the military action in Jalalabad
of Soviet Afghanistan to teach Soviet Union a lesson for their long unconditional support to India and proxy war in pakistan, and to avenge Pakistan's loss in 1965 and 1971 war. This operation was "a defining moment for her [Benazir's] government" to prove the loyalty to Pakistan Armed Forces. This operation planned by then-Director General of the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) Lieutenant-General Hamid Gul
, with impulsion of U.S. ambassador to Pakistan
Robert Oakley. Known as Battle of Jalalabad, it was intended to gain a conventional victory on Soviet Union
after Soviet Union had withdrawn
its troops. The central planner of this operation was Lieutenant-General Hamid Gul
who gained Bhutto's permission and authorization after he had briefed her on the Afghanistan situation. The mission, planned solely by Lieutenant-General Hamid Gul, brutally failed in a matter of two months, with no effective results were produced. The morale of the mujahideen involved in the attack slumped and many local commanders ended truces with the government. Angered and frustrated with the outcomes of the operation, Benazir Bhutto, who was already displeased with Gul, immediately deposed
and sacked Lieutenant-General Hamid Gul while his rank was not degraded but his pay rate was made equivalent to Major rank officer. The decision to deposed Gul was one of her authoritative move that surprised many senior statesman, though they did backed Benazir. She replaced Gul with another Lieutenant General Shamsur Rahman Kallu
who proved to be more a capable officer in the Afghan war than Gul. Benazir also promoted and strengthened the relations with the United Kingdom
, and met with British counter part Margaret Thatcher
where a finance assistance and trade agreement was signed by both prime ministers. In all, during her first government, Benazir Bhutto's foreign policy revolved around Afghanistan, India, and the United States.
, a Nobel laureate in Physics
and science advisor of her father, where she had paid great respect to Abdus Salam. During her first and second term, Benazir Bhutto followed the same policy on science and technology as her father did in 1972, and promoted the military funding of science and technology
as part of her policy. However, in 1988, Benazir Bhutto was denied access to any of the country's classified national research institutes run under the Pakistan Armed Forces which maintained under the control of civilian President Ghulam Ishaq Khan and the Chief of Army Staff. Ironically, Benazir Bhutto was deliberately kept unaware about the progress of the nuclear complexes when country passed the milestone of manufacturing fissile core decades ago. The U.S. Ambassador, Robert Oakley, was the first diplomat to have notified about the complexes in 1988. Shortly after this, Benazir summoned Chairman of the PAEC
, Munir Ahmad Khan
who she knew since 1975 in her office where Khan brought dr. Abdul Qadeer Khan
with him and introduced dr. Khan to the prime minister. At there, Benazir Bhutto learned to status of this crash program which had been matured since 1978, and on behalf of dr. Khan Benazir first paid the visit to KRL
in 1989 which angered the President Ghulam Ishaq Khan. Benazir Bhutto also responded to Khan when she moved the Ministry of Science and Technology
's office to the Prime minister Secretariat with Munir Ahmad Khan directly reporting to her. Benazir Bhutto had successfully eliminated any possibilities of Khan's involvement or any influence in science research programmes, a policy which also benefited Nawaz Sharif
. During her first and second term, Benazir Bhutto issued funding of many projects entirely devoted to country's national defence and security. Dismissal of Lieutenant-General Gul by Benazir Bhutto had played a significant role on Chief of Army Staff General Mirza Aslam Beg
who did not interfere in the matters science and technology, remained supportive towards Benazir Bhutto's hard line actions on the President.
In 1980s, Benazir Bhutto started the aerospace projects such as Project Sabre II
, Project PAC, Ghauri project
under dr. Abdul Qadeer Khan in 1990 and the Shaheen programme
in 1995 under dr. Samar Mubarakmand. During her second term, Benazir Bhutto declared "1996", an year of "information technology
", and envisioned her policy as making Pakistan "global player" in the information technology. One of her initiatives was the launching of the an ambitious package of computer literacy
through the private sector participation. Benazir issued an executive decree allowing to complete duty-tariff free imports of hardware and software exports, and to provide a low rate for data communications in public and private sector. Benazir Bhutto also established and sat up the infrastructure of of soft-ware technology parks in rural and urban cities, and approved a financial assistance loan for soft-ware houses for public sector.
whose policy was to make the nuclear weapons programme more benefit to economy
, Benazir Bhutto took aggressive steps and decisions to modernize and expand the integrated weapons programme founded and started by her father in 1972, was one of the key political administrative figures of Pakistan's nuclear deterrent development. Despite Benazir's denial for the authorization of the nuclear testing programme, Benazir continued to modernize the programme into new heights despite the United State's embargo, which she termed this embargo as "contractual obligation".
It was during her regime that Pressler amendment came in effect in an attempt to freeze the programme. While her frequent trips to United States, Benazir Bhutto refused to make any compromise on the nuclear weapons programme and, shifted her rogue criticism to Indian nuclear programme, and attacking Indian nuclear programme on multiple occasions. Benazir Bhutto had mislead the U.S. when she told the United States Government that the programme had been frozen, but the programme was progressively modernized and continued under her watch. Under her regime, the Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission
(PAEC) had conducted series of improvised designs of nuclear weapons designed by Theoretical Physics Group (TPG) at PAEC. Benazir Bhutto's father, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, was the father of Pakistan's nuclear deterrence programme, and was instructed to keep in touch with senior scientists involved in this programme. Benazir Bhutto also carried messages to Munir Ahmad Khan
from her father and back in 1979 as her father, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, had instructed his daughter to remain in touch with the Chairman of PAEC.Munir Ahmad Khan, Technical director of Pakistan's integrated weapons programme and former Chairman of Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission (PAEC), "She was the eldest child of former prime minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, 1999. In this context, Bhutto had appointed Munir Ahmad Khan as her Science Adviser who kept her informed about the development of the programme. In all, the nuclear weapons and energy program remained Benazir's top priority as with the country's economy. During her first term, the nuclear program was under attack and under pressure by the Western world, particularly the United States
. Despite the economical aid was offered by the European Union and the United States as in return to halt or freeze the program, Benazir did not compromised and continued this crash program under her first and second regime.
During his first term, Bhutto had approved and launched the Shaheen programme
as she had advocated for this programme strongly. A vocal and avid supporter of the program, Bhutto also allotted funds for the programme, and strategic programs were launched under Bhutto's premiership. On 6 January 1996, Bhutto publicly announced that if India conducts a nuclear test, Pakistan could be forced to "follow suit". Bhutto later said that the day will never arise when we have to use our knowledge to make and detonate a [nuclear] device and export our technology.
in Karachi University and expanded the facilities for the space research
. Pakistan's first military satellite, Badr-I was also launched under her government through China
, while the second military satellite Badr-II
was completed during her second democratic government term. With launching of Badr-I, Pakistan under Benazir Bhutto, became the first Muslim country to have launch and placed the satellite in Earth's orbit
, second only after India. She declared the "1990", an year of space in Pakistan and conferred national awards to scientists and engineers who took participation in the development of this satellite.
, Benazir needed permission from Khan for imposing new policies, which Khan vetoed as he seen to moderate or contradict to his point of view
. Benazir, through her legislators, also attempted to shift parliamentary democracy to replace the semi-presidential system, but Khan's constitutional powers always vetoed Benazir's attempts.
The amid tales of corruption began to surfaced in the media in the nationalized industries and corporations which undermined the credibility of Benazir Bhutto. The unemployment and labor strikes began to take place which halted and jammed the economic wheel of the country and Benazir Bhutto was unable to solve these issues due to in a cold war with the President. In November 1990, after a long political battle, Khan finally used the Eighth Amendment (VIII Amendment)
to dismiss Benazir Bhutto's government following charges of corruption
, nepotism
, and despotism
. Khan soon called for new elections in 1990 where Bhutto conceded her defeat.
called for the new Parliamentary elections
in 1990. The Islami Jamhoori Ittehad (Islamic Democratic Alliance (IDA)
under the leadership of conservative leader Navaz Sharif
won the majority in the Parliament, Benazir Bhutto accepted her defeat soon after. For the first time in the history of Pakistan, the conservative forces had a chance to rule the country, and Navaz Sharif became 12th Prime minister of Pakistan and Benazir Bhutto was elected as the Leader of the Opposition for the next five years.
During 1990 till 1993, Benazir Bhutto worked for her voice and screen image. Pakistan affair intellectual, Anatol Lieven
, compared her accent as "cut-glass accent", but acknowledge her education and good-standing academic background. Benazir Bhutto began regularly to attend lunches at the Institute of Development Economics (IDE)
, a think tank founded in 1950s; she had been visiting IDE and reading its publications since the mid 1970s. During this time, the IDA launched a secret campaign against Benazir Bhutto's image to demoralized the party workers; this campaign brutally backfired on Nawaz Sharif when the media exposed the culprits and motives behind this plot. More than Rs. 5 million were spent on this campaign and it had undermined the credibility of Conservatives who also failed to resolve issues among between them.
Despite an economic recovery in the late 1993, the IDA government faced public unease about the direction of the country and a industrialization revolved and centered only in Punjab Province. Amid protest and civil disorder in Sindh Province, following the imposition of Operation Clean-up
, the IDA government lost the control of the province. The Peoples Party attacked the IDA government's unemployment records, and industrial racism. However, President Ghulam Ishaq Khan dismissal the conservatives government on same charges when Sharif attempted to revert the 8th Amendment but was unsuccessful, therefore he was forced to resign and his government was later dismissed. Nawaz Sharif and Benazir Bhutto united to oust the Conservative President who lost the control of the country in matter of weeks. Khan too was forced to resign with Nawaz Sharif in 1993, and an interim government was formed until the new government. A parliamentary election
was called after the resignation of Nawaz Sharif and Ghulam Ishaq Khan by Pakistan Armed Forces. Both Sharif and Benazir Bhutto compaigned with full force, targetting each other's personalities. Their policies were very similar but saw a clash of personalities with both parties making many promises but not explaining how they were going to pay for them.
Sharif stood on his record of privitisation
s and development projects and pledged to restore his taxi
giveaway program. Bhutto promised price support
s for agriculture, pledged a partnership between government and business and campaigned strongly for the female vote.
, Lahore
and Rawalpindi
. On 19 October, 1993, Benazir Bhutto was sworn as 12th Prime minister allowing her to continue her reform initiatives.
Benazir Bhutto learned a valuable experience and lesson from the presidency of Ghulam Ishaq Khan, and the presidential elections were soon called after her re-elect. After carefully examining the candidates, Benazir Bhutto decided to appoint Farooq Leghari
as for her president, in which, Leghari sworned as 8th President of Pakistan on November 14, 1993 as well as first Baloch to have became president since the country's independence. Leghari was an apolitical
figure who was educated Kingston University London receiving his degree in same discipline as of Benazir Bhutto. But unlike Khan, Leghari had no political background, no experience in government running operations, and had no background understanding the civil-military relations. In contrast, Leghari was a figurehead and puppet president with all of the military leadership directly reporting to Benazir Bhutto.
whose support had collapsed. The Friday Times
noted "Both of them (Nawaz and Benazir) have done so badly in the past, it will be very difficult for them to do worse now. If Bhutto's government fails, everyone knows there will be no new elections. The army will take over". In confidential official documents Benazir Bhutto had objected to the number of Urdu speaking class in 1993 elections, in context that she had no Urdu-speaking sentiment in her circle and discrimination was continued even in her government. Her stance on these issues was perceived as part of rising public disclosure which Altaf Hussain
called "racism". Due to Benazir Bhutto's stubbornness and authoritative actions, her political rivals gave her the nickname "Iron Lady
" of Pakistan. No response was issued by Bhutto, but she soon associated with the term.
The racial violence in Karachi was reached at peak and became a biggest problem for Benazir Bhutto to counter. The MQM attempted to make an alliance with Benazir Bhutto under her own conditions, but Benazir Bhutto refused. Soon the second operation, Operation Blue Fox was launched to politically vanished the MQM from country's political spectrum. The results of this operation remains inconclusive and resulted in thousands killed or gone missing, with majority contains Urdu-speaking. Benazir Bhutto issued the statement to MQM asking the MQM to surrender to her government unconditionally. Though the operation was halted in 1995, but amid violence continued and, Shahid Javed Burki
, a professor of economics, noted that "Karachi problem was not so much an ethnic problem as it was an economic question. Amid union and labor strikes began to take place in Karachi and Lahore, which were encouraged by both Altaf Hussain and Nawaz Sharif to undermined her authority. Benazir Bhutto responded by disbanding these trade union and issuing orders to arrest the leaders of the trade unions, while on other hand, Benazir Bhutto provide incentives to local workers and laborers as she had separated the workers from their union leaders successfully. Benazir Bhutto expanded the authoritative rights of Police Combatant Force and the provisional governments that tackled the local opposition aggressively. Benazir Bhutto, though her Internal Security Minister Naseerullah Babar
, intensified the internal security operations and steps gradually putting down the opposition's political rallies, while she did not complete abandoned the reconciliation policy. In her own worlds, Benazir Bhutto announced: "There was no basis for (strikes)... in view of the on going political process...".
In August of 1993, Benazir Bhutto narrowly escaped an assassination attempt near at the local hotel in the early morning. While no one was injured or killed, the culprits of this attempt were went into hiding. In December 1993, disturbing news began to surfaces in Swat valley when Sufi Muhammad
, a religious cleric, began to mobilize the local militia calling for overthrow of Un-Islamic rule of [Iron] Lady. Benazir Bhutto responded quickly and ordered the Pakistan Army
to crackdown the militia, the movement was crushed by the Army and the cleric was apprehended before he could escaped.
However, the corruption grew during her government, and her government became increasingly unpopular amid corruption scandals which became public. One of the most internationally and nationally reported scandal was the Agosta Submarine scandal. Benazir Bhutto's spouse Asif Ali Zardari
was linked with former Admiral Mansurul Haq who allegedely made side deals with French officials and Asif Ali Zardari while acquiring the submarine technology. It was one of the consequences that her government was dismissed and Asif Ali Zardari along with Mansurul Haq were arrested and a trial was set in place. Both Zardari and Haq were detained due to corruption cases and Benazir Bhutto flew to Dubai from Pakistan in 1998.
ordinances) that curtail the rights of women in Pakistan. Bhutto was pro-life
and spoke forcefully against abortion
, most notably at the International Conference on Population and Development
in Cairo, where she accused the West of "seeking to impose adultery, abortion, intercourse education and other such matters on individuals, societies and religions which have their own social ethos." However, Bhutto was not supported by the leading women organizations, who argued that after being elected twice, none of the reforms were made, instead controversial laws were exercised more toughly. Therefore, in 1997 elections, Bhutto failed to secure any support from women's organizations and minorities also gave Bhotto the cold-shoulder when she approached them. It was not until 2006 that the Zina ordinance was finally repealed by a Presidential Ordinance issued by Pervez Musharraf
in July 2006.
Bhutto was an active and founding member of the Council of Women World Leaders
, a network of current and former prime ministers and presidents.
, taking the charge of economic and financial affairs on her hand. Benazir sought to improve the country's economy which was declining as the time was passing. Benazir disagreed with her father's nationalization and socialist economics
. Soon after the collapse of Soviet Union
, Benazir attempted to privatized major industries that were nationalized in 1970s. However, Benazir and Ghulam Ishaq Khan soon suffered a currency crises when the government failed to arrest the 30% fall in the value of the Pakistan Rupee
from Rs. 21 to Rs. 30 to currency compare and contrast to US$
. Soon economic progress became her top priority but her investment and industrialization programs faced major setbacks due to conceptions formed by investors based upon her People's Party nationalization program in 1970s. By the 1990s, Khan and Benazir Bhutto's government had also ultimately lost the currency war
with the Indian currency
and Indian Rupee beat the value of Pakistan rupee for the first time in 1970s. Benazir Bhutto's denationalization program also suffered from many political setbacks, as many of her government members were either directly or indirectly involved with the government corruption in major government-owned industries
, and her appointed government members allegedly sabotaged her efforts to privatized the industries.
Overall, the living standard for people in Pakistan declined as inflation
and unemployment
grew at an exponential rate. During her first and second term, the difference between rich and poor visibly increased and the middle class in particular were the ones who suffered from the major economic inequality. According to a calculation completed by the Federal Bureau of Statistics
, the rich were statistically were improved
and the poor were declined
in terms of living standards. Benazir attributed this economic inequality
to be a result of ongoing and continuous illegal Bengali immigration
. Benazir Bhutto ordered a crackdown on and deportation of illegal Bangladeshi immigrants. Her action strained and created tensions in Bangladesh–Pakistan relations, with Khaleda Zia
, who was in power in Dhaka during the time. He refused to accept the deportees and reportedly sent two planeloads back to Pakistan. Religious parties also criticized Bhutto and dubbed the crackdown as anti-Islamic.
This operation backlashed and had devastating effects on Pakistan's economy. Ghulam Ishaq Khan who saw this as a major economic failure despite Khan's permission was required by Benazir Bhutto for the approval of her economic policies. Khan blamed Benazir for this extensive economic slowdown and her policy that failed to stop the illegal immigration. Khan attributed Benazir Bhutto's government members corruption in government-owned industries as the major sink hole in Pakistan's economy that failed to compete with neighboring India's economy.
During her second term, Benazir Bhutto continued to follow former Prime minister Nawaz Sharif's Privatization
policies, which she called "disciplined macroeconomics policy". After the 1993 elections the sale of state-owned banks and utilities accelerated; more than Rs
.42 billion was raised from the sale of nationalized corporations and industries , and another $20 billion from the foreign investment made the United States. The process of privatization of the nationalized industries was associated with the marked performance and improvement, especially the terms of labor productivity
. A number of privatization of industries such as gas, water, and electricity, were natural monopolies
for which the privatization involved little competition.. However, the privatized money was avoided not spent on people's living standard, and it was in 1997, when it was founded that the amount gained in privatization had gone somewhere else and it was no where to be found in government's account.
Furthermore, Benazir denied the privatization of the Pakistan Railways
despite the calls were made in Pakistan, and was said to have told to Chairman of the Planning Commission
Naveed Qamar, "Railways privatization will be the "blackhole" of this government. Please never mention the railways to me again". Benazir Bhutto always resisted to privatized the UBL, but UBL management send the recommendation for the privatization which dismayed the labor union. The United Group of Employees Management (UGEM) asked the Madame Prime minister for issue of regulation sheet which she denied. The holding of UBL in government control turned out to be a move that ended in "disaster" for Benazir Bhutto's government.
, Benazir Bhutto sought to strengthen the relations with socialist states, and Benazir Bhutto first visit Libya
to strengthened the relations
with then-Socialist Peoples Republic of Libya. Benazir also thanked Muammar al-Gaddafi
for his tremendous efforts and support for her father during the 1977. Ties continued with Libya but deteriorated after Nawaz Sharif became Prime minister in 1990 and again in 1997. In Pakistan, Qaddafi was said to be very fond of Benazir Bhutto and was a family friend of Bhutto family
, but disliked Nawaz Sharif due to his ties with General Zia in the 1980s. Benazir Bhutto is said to have paid a state visit to North Korea
in early 1990 and in 1996, and according to journalist Shyam Bhatia, Bhutto smuggled CDs
containing uranium enrichment data to North Korea
on a state visit that same year in return for data on missile technology. According to the expert, Benazir Bhutto acted as female "James Bond
", and left with a bag of computer disks to pass on to her military to North Korea.
Major-General Pervez Musharraf closely worked with Benazir Bhutto and her government in formulating the foreign strategy with Israel. In 1993, during Benazir Bhutto's state visit to the United States
, Major-General Pervez Musharraf who was tenuring as the Director-General of the Pakistan Army's Directorate-General for the Military Operation (DGMO), was ordered by Bhutto to join this state visit. As unusual and unconventional it was for the Director of the Directorate-General for Military Operations (DGMO) to join this trip, Benazir Bhutto and her DGMO had chaired a secret meeting with Israeli
officials in New York
in 1993 who especially flew to Washington. Under her guidance, General Musharraf had intensified the ISI's liaison with Israel's Mossad
. A final meeting was took place in 1995, and General Musharraf had also joined this meeting with Benazir Bhutto after she ordered General Musharraf to fly to New York immediately. Benazir Bhutto also strengthened relations
with communist state Vietnam
and visited Vietnam to sign the mutual trade and international political cooperation between both countries. In 1995, Benazir Bhutto paid a state visit to United States
where she held talks with U.S. President Bill Clinton
. During the visit, Benazir Bhutto urged the United States to amend the Pressler Amendment and emphasized United States to launch a campaign against the extremism. Though, the Prime Minister criticized U.S.'s nonproliferation policy and demanded that the United States honour its contractual obligation.
During her second term, the relationship with P. V. Narasimha Rao
of India further deteriorated. As like her father, Benazir Bhutto used the rhetoric opposition to India, campaigning international community against the Indian nuclear programme. On May 1st, 1995, Benazir Bhutto used harsh language and publicly warned India for her "continuation of [Indian] nuclear programme would have terrible consequences". India responded to this statement as interfering in India's "internal matter", and the Indian Army fired a RPG near at the Kahuta
which further escalating the events leading into the full-fledged war. When the news reached to Benazir Bhutto, she responded by high-alerting the Air Force Strategic Command
which, heavily armed Arrows, Griffins, Black Panthers
and the Black Spiders
(all of these squadrons are part of the Strategic Command) began to take the air sorties and patrol the Indo-Pakistan border on day and night regular missions. On May 30, India test fired the Prithvi-1 missile near the Pakistan border, which was condemned by Benazir Bhutto. Following this test, Benazir responded by deploying Shaheen-I
missile, however these missiles were not put on missile mode. Benazir Bhutto permitted PAF
to deploy Crotale missile defence and the Anza-Mk-III
near at the Indian border which escalated the conflict, but it had produced effective results that kept the Indian Army
and the Indian Air Force
to launch any surprise attack. In 1994, she bought the Agosta submarines and the AIP
technology from France
to replace the aging Daphné-class
submarines for the Pakistan Navy
. It was a highly controversial agreement, but it had tripled the Pakistan's naval capabilities that later posed a substantial threat to Indian Navy
to launch a naval adventure against Pakistan. Benazir Bhutto later deployed the Pakistan Navy
's Mu-90
torpedo, and authorized an submarine operation to patrol the vicinity of Pakistan naval borders in order to keep Indian Navy away from the economical ports.
In 1995, the ISI reported to the Madame Prime minister that P.V. Narasimha Rao, Indian Premier
had given an authorization for nuclear tests, and the tests could be conducted any minute. Benazir responded by putting the country's nuclear arsenal programme on high-alert ; emergency preparations were made by the government, and Benazir Bhutto ordered the Pakistan Armed Forces to stay on high-alert. However, after the United States
interfered, the Indian' operations for conducting the nuclear tests were called off and the Japan tried to provide mediation between both countries. However, in 1996, Benazir Bhutto met with the Japanese officials where she warned India about conducting the nuclear tests, and in the first time, Benazir Bhutto revealed that Pakistan has achieved "parity" with India in its "capacity" to produce nuclear weapons and their "delivery capability." While talking to Indian press, Benazir Bhutto said that Pakistan "cannot afford to negate the parity we maintain with India" in the nuclear area. Benazir Bhutto's statements represent a departure from Pakistan's previous policy of "nuclear ambivalence. Soon after learning this news, Prime minister Benazir Bhutto issued a statement concerning the tests in which she reportedly told the international press and condemned Indian nuclear tests, as she puts it:
Benazir Bhutto also intensified her policy on Indian-held Kashmir working rallying against India
. Benazir Bhutto, accompanied by her then-Speaker of the National Assembly Yousaf Raza Gillani
(now Prime minister) at the Inter-Parliamentary Union meeting at the United Nations, gave a vehement and intensified criticism to India which frustrated, upsat and angered the Indian delegation headed by Prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee
. Vajpayee responded by saying: It is Pakistan which is flouting the United Nations resolution by not withdrawing its forces from Kashmir...You people create problem every time. You know the Kashmiri people themselves acceded to India. First, the Maharaja then the Kashmiri parliament both decided to go with India".
In 1996, Benazir Bhutto attacked the Indian nuclear programme and warned India for "tragic consequences". Benazir Bhutto criticized Indian held-Kashmir and described it as the worst example of Indian intransigence. Benazir also countered Indian allegation for Pakistan's putative nuclear test as "baseless allegation". Benazir Bhutto criticized India as a bid to hide its plan to explode a nuclear device, and failure to cover up its domestic problems including its failure in suppressing the freedom struggle in Kashmir.
. Chief of Army Staff General Mirza Aslam Beg had cold relations with the elected prime minister, and continued to undermine her authority. As for the military appointments, Benazir Bhutto refused to appoint General Beg as the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee, instead invited Admiral Iftikhar Ahmed Sirohey
to take the chairmanship of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. In 1988, Benazir Bhutto appointed General Hakimullah
as the Chief of Air Staff
and Admiral Jastural Haq
as the Chief of Naval Staff
. In 1988, shortly after assuming the office, Benazir Bhutto paid a visit to Siachen region, to boost the moral of the soldiers who fought the Siachen war
with India. This was the first visit of any civilian leader to any military war-zone area since the country's independence in 1947. In 1988, Benazir appointed Major-General Pervez Musharraf
as Director-general of the Army Directorate General for Military Operations (DGMO); and then-Brigadier-General Ishfaq Pervez Kayani as her Military-Secretary. In 1989, the Pakistan Army exposed the alleged Operation Midnight Jackal
against the government of Benazir Bhutto. When she learned the news, Benazir Bhutto ordered the arrest and trial of former ISI officer Brigadier Imtiaz Ahmad and Major Amir Khan, it was late revealed that it was General Beg who was behind this plot. General Beg soon paid the price in 1993 elections, when Benazir Bhutto politically destroyed the former general and his career was over before taking any shifts in politics.
During her second term, Benazir Bhutto's relations with the Pakistan Armed Forces took a different and pro-Benazir approach, when she carefully appointed General Abdul Waheed as the Chief of Army Staff. General Abdul Waheed was an uptight, strict, and a professional officer with a views of Westernized democracy. Benazir also appointed Admiral
Saeed Mohammad Khan
as Chief of Naval Staff; General Abbas Khattak
as Chief of Air Staff. Whilst, General Farooq Feroze Khan
was appointed Chairman Joint Chiefs who was the first (thus date, only) Pakistan Air Force general to have reached to such 4 star assignment. Benazir Bhutto enjoyed a strong relations with the Pakistan Armed Forces, and President who was hand-picked by her did not questioned her authority. She hand-picked officers and promoted them based on their pro-democracy views while the puppet President gave constitutional authorization for their promotion.
After the assassination was attempted, Benazir Bhutto's civilian security unit was disbanded and Army took control of the security of Benazir Bhutto. Benazir Bhutto ordered General Abdul Waheed Kakar and the Lieutenant-General Javed Ashraf Qazi
director-general of ISI, to start a sting and manhunt operation to hunt down the ringmaster, Ramzi Yousef
. After few arrests and intensive manhunt search, the ISI finally captured Ramzi before he could flew the country. In matter of weeks, Ramzi was secretly extradited to the United States
, while the ISI manage to kill or apprehend all the culprits behind the assignation plot. In 1995, she personally appointed General Naseem Rana
as the Director-General of the ISI, who later commanded the Pakistan Army's assets in which came to known as "Pakistan's secret war in Afghanistan. During this course, General Rana directly reported to Madame Prime minister, and led the intelligence operations after which were approved by Benazir Bhutto. In 1995, Benazir also appointed Admiral Mansurul Haq as the Chief of Naval Staff, as the Admiral had personal contacts with the Benazir's family. However, it was the Admiral's large scale corruption, sponsored by her husband Asif Zardari, that shrinked the credibility of Benazir Bhutto by the end of 1996 that led to end her government after all.
in September 1996. It was during Bhutto's rule that the Taliban gained prominence in Afghanistan
. She, like many at the time, including the United States government, viewed the Taliban as a group that could stabilize Afghanistan and enable trade access to the Central Asian republics, according to author Stephen Coll. He claims that her government provided military and financial support for the Taliban, even sending a small unit of the Pakistani army into Afghanistan. During her regime, Bhutto's government had controversially supported the hardline Taliban, and many of her government officials were providing financial assistance to the Taliban.
However 2007, she took an anti-Taliban stance, and condemned terrorist acts allegedly committed by the Taliban and their supporters.
hatched by renegade military officers of the Pakistan Army. The culprit and ring leader of the coup was a junior level officer, Major-General Zahirul Islam Abbasi
who had radical views. Others included Brigadier-Generals Mustansir Billa, and Qari Saifullah of Pakistan Army. The secret ISI learned this plot and tipped off the Pakistan Army and at midnight before the coup could take place, it was thwarted. This coup was exposed by Lieutenant-General (retired) Ali Kuli Khan
, at that time he was Major-General and headed the Military Intelligence
, and Lieutenant-General (retired) Jehangir Karamat
, Chief of General Staff
. The Military Intelligence led the arrest of 36 army officers and 20 civilians in Rawalpindi; General Ali Kuli Khan reported to Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto early morning and and submitted his report on the coup. After learning this, Benazir was angered and dismayed, therefore a full fledged running court martial was formed by Benazir Bhutto. Prime Minister Benazir issued arrests of numbers of religiously conservatives leaders and therefore denied the amnesty and clemency calls made by the Army officers. By the 1996, all of the dissidents officers were either jailed or shot dead by the Pakistan Army and a report was submitted to the Prime minister. As in return, General Kuli Khan and General Karamat received wide appreciation from the Prime minister and were decorated with the civilian decorations and award by her.
, Benazir Bhutto's younger brother, was controversially and publicly shot down in a controversial police encounter in Karachi. Since 1989, Murtaza and Benazir had a series of disagreement on formulating the Pakistan Peoples Party's policies and Murtaza's opposition towards Benazir's operations
against the Urdu-speaking class. Murtaza also developed serious disagreement with Benazir's spouse Asif Ali Zardari
, and unsuccessfully attempted to remove his influence in the government. Benazir and Murtaza's mother, Nusrat Bhutto
sided with Murtaza which also dismay the daughter. In an controversial interview, Benazir declared that Pakistan only need one Bhutto, not two, though she denied of giving or passing any comments. Her younger brother increasingly made her difficult to run the government after her younger brother rose voices against Benazir's alleged corruption. Alone in Sindh, Benazir lost the support of the province as compared to her younger brother. At the political campaign, Murtaza demanded the party elections inside the Pakistan Peoples Party
, which according to Zardari, Benazir would have lost due to Nusrat was backing Murtaza and inside the party, many workers were willing to see Murtaza as country's Prime minister as well as the Chair of the party. More problems arisen when Abdullah Shah Lakiyari, Chief Minister
of Sindh, and allegedly her spouse created a disturbances in Murtaza's political campaign. On 20th September, 1996, in a controversial police encounter, Murtaza Bhutto was shot dead along with six other party activists, near his residence. As the news reached to entire Pakistan, Benazir Bhutto hurriedly return to Karachi and an emergency was proclaimed in the entire province. Benazir Bhutto's limo was stoned by angered PPP workers when she tried to visit Murtaza's funeral ceremonies. Her brother's death had crushed Nusrat Bhutto and immediately admitted to the local hospital after learning that her son had died. At Murtaza's funeral, Nusrat accused Benazir and Zardari of being responsible and vowed to pursue prosecution.
President Farooq Leghari
, who would dismiss the Bhutto government seven weeks after Murtaza's death, also suspected Benazir and Zardari's involvement. Several of Pakistan's leading newspapers alleged that Zardari wanted his brother-in-law out of the way because of Murtaza's activities as head of a breakaway faction of the PPP. In all, after this incident, Benazir Bhutto lost all the support from Sindh Province, and the public opinion later turned against her, with many believes that her spouse was allegedly involved in the murder, a claim her spouse strongly rejected.
(now the current President of Pakistan) was linked with then-Chief of Naval Staff
and former Admiral Mansurol Haque. Known as Agosta class scandal, many of higher naval admirals and government officials of both French and Pakistan were accused to have get paid heavy commission while the deal was disclosed to sell this sensitive submarine technology to Pakistan Navy.
In November 1996, Bhutto's government was dismissed by Leghari primarily because of corruption and Murtaza's death, who used the Eighth Amendment discretionary powers to dissolve the government. The Supreme Court affirmed President Leghari's dismissal in a 6–1 ruling.
Criticism against Benazir Bhutto came from the powerful political spectrum of the Punjab Province and the Kashmir Province who opposed Benazir Bhutto, particularly the nationalization issue that led the lost of Punjab's privatized industries under the hands of her government. Bhutto blamed this opposition for the destabilization of Pakistan. Soon after her government was ended, the Naval intelligence
led the arrest of Chief of Naval Staff and acquitted him with a running court-martial
sat up at the Naval Judge Advocate General Corps
led by active duty 4-star admiral. Many of her government members and cabinet ministers including her spouse were thrown in jails and the trials were sat up at the civilian Supreme Court
. Faced with serious charges by the Navaz Sharif's government, Bhutto flew to Dubai
with her three young children while her spouse was thrown in jail. Shortly after rising to power in a 1999 military coup, General Pervez Musharraf
characterized Bhutto's terms as an "era of sham democracy" and others characterized her terms a period of corrupt, failed governments.
. Soon, Benazir left for Dubai taking her three children with her, while her husband was set to face the trial.
Bhutto assumed the charge of Leader of the Opposition
in the Parliament despite living in Dubai, working for her public image while she was supportive towards the public reforms. In 1998, soon after the Indian nuclear tests
, Benazir publicly called for the tests, rallying and pressuring the elected Prime minister Nawaz Sharif to take the decision. Benazir had an internal political intelligence on deep circles of Prime minister that the elected Prime minister, Nawaz Sharif, was reluctant and hesitated to give authorization of the tests, therefore, a public call for test would increase her popularity numbers in country's political scoreboard. However, this move backfired when the Prime minister indeed authorized and gave orders to the scientists from PAEC
and KRL
to conduct the tests. A wide range of approvals of these tests was conceived by Prime minister, and the public image and prestige of the Prime minister Nawaz Sharif was at its peak point. As for Benazir, it was a another political defeat and her image smoothly declined in 1998.
However, Pakistan entered
in the year of 1999 that brought dramatic changes for Benazir Bhutto as well as the entire country. Benazir criticized Sharif for violating the Armed Forces's code of conduct when the Prime minister illegally appointed General Pervez Musharraf as Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee. Senior scientist, dr. Abdul Qadeer Khan
, also criticized the Prime minister for making this move and rendered as Prime minister's unforgettable and biggest mistake, though he traced his remarks later.
In early months of 1999, Sharif remained widely popular while Sharif took initiatives to make peace
with neighboring India. However, this all changes when Pakistan became involved with unpopular and undeclared war
with India. This conflict, known as Kargil war
, brought international embarrassment for the country, and the Prime minister's public image and prestige was destroyed in matter of two months. Benazir gave rogue criticism to the elected Prime minister, and called the Kargil War, "Pakistan's greatest blunder"
Lieutenant-General (retired) Ali Kuli Khan
, Director-General of ISI at that time, also publicly criticized the Prime minister and labeled this war as "a disaster bigger than East-Pakistan
". Benazir Bhutto, now joined by religious and liberal forces, made a tremendous effort to destroy the prestige and credibility of elected Prime minister, according to south Asia expert William Dalrymple. In August 1999, Sharif soon suffered another military disaster that completely shattered the Prime minister's image and mandate. In August, two Indian Air Force
's MiG-21FL shot down the Pakistan Navy
's reconnaissance plane killing 16 naval officers. Benazir Bhutto criticized the Prime minister for having failed to gather any support for the navy and publicly marks the comments on the Prime minister's declining of support of Navy. Sharif's relations with the Pakistan Armed Forces deteriorated as the Armed Forces began to criticized the Prime minister for causing the military disasters. During this time, Benazir's approval rates were immensely approved and received wide range of positive approval in the civil society. The Armed Forces Chiefs remained sympathetic towards Benazir as she continued to harassed and criticized the elected Prime minister.
Benazir Bhutto was highly confident that her party would secured the overwhelming victory on coming Senate elections on 1999 on Navaz Sharif's party in the Senate secretariat
due to wide disapproval of the Prime minister. Controversially, when the coup d'état was initiated by Pakistan Armed Forces, Benazir Bhutto did not issued any comments nor criticized rather remaining silent in the support of General Pervez Musharraf, as noted by south Asia expert William Dalrymple.
Benazir remained supportive towards General Musharraf's massive arrests of Nawaz Sharif's workers in Pakistan. Ultimately, General Musharraf had destroyed and shattered Nawaz Sharif's political presence in Sindh and Kashmir
Provinces. Many political offices of Sharif's constituency were forcefully closed and Sharif's sympathetic elements were forcefully jailed. In 2002, Benazir Bhutto and the MQM made a side-line deal with General Musharraf that allows both to continue underground political activities in Sindh and Kashmir Provinces and to fill the gap after Musharraf had destroyed Sharif's presence in the both provinces. It was seen clearly in 2008 parliamentary elections
, when Nawaz Sharif failed to secure any vote back in Sindh and Kashmir Provinces. As aftermath of 2008, the PPP and the MQM formed the coalition government in Sindh and Kashmir Provinces and strongly opposed Nawaz Sharif in both provinces.
. Though never convicted, her husband, Asif Ali Zardari
, spent eight years in prison on similar corruption charges. After being released on bail in 2004, Zardari suggested that his time in prison involved torture; human rights groups have supported his claim that his rights were violated.
A 1998 New York Times investigative report claims that Pakistani investigators have documents that uncover a network of bank accounts, all linked to the family's lawyer in Switzerland, with Asif Zardari as the principal shareholder. According to the article, documents released by the French authorities indicated that Zardari offered exclusive rights to Dassault, a French aircraft manufacturer, to replace the air force's fighter jets
in exchange for a 5% commission to be paid to a Swiss corporation controlled by Zardari. The article also said a Dubai company received an exclusive license to import gold into Pakistan for which Asif Zardari received payments of more than $10 million into his Dubai-based Citibank
accounts. The owner of the company denied that he had made payments to Zardari and claims the documents were forged.
Bhutto maintained that the charges leveled against her and her husband were purely political. An Auditor General of Pakistan
(AGP) report supports Bhutto's claim. It presents information suggesting that Benazir Bhutto was ousted from power in 1990 as a result of a witch hunt approved by then-president Ghulam Ishaq Khan. The AGP report says Khan illegally paid legal advisers 28 million rupees to file 19 corruption cases against Bhutto and her husband in 1990–92.
Yet the assets held by Bhutto and her husband continue to be scrutinized and speculated about. The prosecutors have alleged that their Swiss bank accounts contain £740 million. Zardari also bought a neo-Tudor
mansion and estate worth over £4 million in Surrey
, England, UK. The Pakistani investigations have tied other overseas properties to Zardari's family. These include a $2.5 million manor in Normandy
owned by Zardari's parents, who had modest assets at the time of his marriage. Bhutto denied holding substantive overseas assets.
Despite numerous cases and charges of corruption registered against Bhutto by Nawaz Sharif between 1996–1999 and Pervez Musharraf
from 1999 till 2008, she was yet to be convicted in any case after a lapse of twelve years since their commencement. The cases were withdrawn by the government of Pakistan after the return to power of Bhutto's Pakistan Peoples Party
in 2008.
had became widely unpopular, and following the military coup, Sharif's credibility, image, and even his career was destroyed by General Pervez Musharraf in Pakistan. Musharraf formed the Pakistan Muslim League (Q)
in order to politically vanished the former prime minister's party in Balochistan, Punjab, Sindh, Khyber, and Kashmir Provinces. The Pakistan Muslim League (Q) had consisted of those who were initially part of the former prime minister's party but then moved with Musharraf in order to avoid prosecution and going to jail. The year of 2000 brought positive changes for Benazir Bhutto who widely became unpopular in Pakistan in 1996. In 2000s, following the declassification of secret Hamoodur Rahman Commission's papers and other secret documents of 1970s, Benazir Bhutto's support in Pakistan began to take place. Her image in the country widely became positive and People's Party seemed to be coming back in the government soon the new elections
were scheduled to take place. Amid fear of coming back of Benazir Bhutto threatened Pervez Musharraf, therefore, Musharraf released many of the political prisoners of the liberal-secular force, the Mutahidda Qaumi Movement (MQM). Musharraf saw MQM as the vital political weapon of holding back of Pakistan Peoples Party. But, MQM had only support in Karachi
at that time, and lacked its support to urban areas of Sindh, which remained a vital threat for Musharraf.
Therefore, in 2002, Pakistan president Pervez Musharraf
amended Pakistan's constitution to ban prime ministers from serving more than two terms, fearing the comeback of Benazir Bhutto. This disqualified Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif from ever holding the office again. This move was widely considered to be a direct attack on former prime ministers Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif
. On 3 August 2003, Bhutto became a member of Minhaj ul Quran International (an international Muslim educational and welfare organization).
, United Arab Emirates
, she cared for her three children and her mother Nusrat
, who was suffering from Alzheimer's disease
, traveling to give lectures and keeping in touch with the PPP's supporters. They were reunited with her husband in December 2004 after more than five years. In 2006, Interpol
issued a request for the arrest of Bhutto and her husband on corruption charges, at the request of Pakistan. The Bhuttos questioned the legality of the requests in a letter to Interpol. On 27 January 2007, she was invited by the United States to speak to President George W. Bush
and Congressional and State Department officials. Bhutto appeared as a panellist on the BBC TV
programme Question Time
in the UK in March 2007. She has also appeared on BBC current affairs programme Newsnight
on several occasions. She rebuffed comments made by Muhammad Ijaz-ul-Haq
in May 2007 regarding the knighthood of Salman Rushdie
, citing that he was calling for the assassination of foreign citizens.
, a U.S. historian, in a controversial letter published in The Wall Street Journal
on 14 June 2007, in response to an article by Bhutto highly critical of the president and his policies, described her as "One of the most incompetent leaders in the history of South Asia," and asserted that she and other elites in Pakistan hate Musharraf because he was a muhajir, the son of one of millions of Indian Muslims
who fled to Pakistan during independence in 1947. Herman claimed, "Although it was muhajirs who agitated for the creation of Pakistan in the first place, many native Pakistanis view them with contempt and treat them as third-class citizens." The author also noted that Bhutto excessively used the words "rats" and "bad blood" while she was briefed and later gave authorization of Operation Blue Fox to limit the Muhajir political activities in Sindh. The MQM refereed this operation as strong emphasis and forced imposition of Pakistan-based Jim Crow laws
against Urdu-speaking class. While researching, an unknown Urdu-speaking spokesperson, told the historian that "we have bad blood; it was this blood that built this country".
In 1980s, Benazir Bhutto quietly and quickly removed the Urdu-speaking sentiment from her party, starting with most notable dr. Mubashir Hassan
, co-founder of Pakistan People's Party and close friend of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto. From the inception of the party, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto had enjoyed a strong relations with Urdu-speaking communities and muhajirs had strong base in People's Party of Pakistan, and remained supporter of her father till the end. Many attribute Benazir's hatred towards Muhajir, was the imposition of martial law and then hanging of her father by General Zia-ul-Haq, a Punjabi muhajir from Jalandhar.
On 11 July 2007, the Associated Press, in an article about the possible aftermath of the Red Mosque incident, wrote:
This remark about the Red Mosque was seen with dismay in Pakistan as reportedly hundreds of young students were burned to death and remains are untraceable and cases are being heard in Pakistani supreme court as a missing persons issue. This and subsequent support for Musharraf led Elder Bhutto's comrades like Khar to criticize her publicly.
Bhutto however advised Musharraf in an early phase of the latter's quarrel with the Chief Justice, to restore him. Her PPP did not capitalize on its CEC member, Aitzaz Ahsan
, the chief Barrister for the Chief Justice, in successful restoration. Rather he was seen as a rival and was isolated.
. Pakistan Muslim League (N)
(PML-N) managed to win eighteen seats only. Some of the elected candidates of PPP formed a faction of their own, calling it PPP-Patriots, which was being led by Faisal Saleh Hayat
, the former leader of Bhutto-led PPP. They later formed a coalition government with Musharraf's party, PML-Q.
In July 2007, some of Bhutto's frozen funds were released. Bhutto continued to face significant charges of corruption. In an 8 August 2007 interview with the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation
, Bhutto revealed the meeting focused on her desire to return to Pakistan for the 2008 elections, and of Musharraf retaining the Presidency with Bhutto as Prime Minister. On 29 August 2007, Bhutto announced that Musharraf would step down as chief of the army. On 1 September 2007, Bhutto vowed to return to Pakistan "very soon", regardless of whether or not she reached a power-sharing deal with Musharraf before then.
On 17 September 2007, Bhutto accused Musharraf's allies of pushing Pakistan into crisis by their refusal to permit democratic reforms and power-sharing. A nine-member panel of Supreme Court
judges deliberated on six petitions (including one from Jamaat-e-Islami
, Pakistan's largest Islamic group) asserting that Musharraf be disqualified from contending for the presidency of Pakistan. Bhutto stated that her party could join one of the opposition groups, potentially that of Nawaz Sharif
. Attorney-general Malik Mohammed Qayyum stated that, pendente lite
, the Election Commission
was "reluctant" to announce the schedule for the presidential vote. Bhutto's party's Farhatullah Babar
stated that the Constitution of Pakistan
could bar Musharraf from being elected again because he was already chief of the army: "As Gen. Musharraf was disqualified from contesting for President, he has prevailed upon the Election Commission to arbitrarily and illegally tamper with the Constitution of Pakistan."
Musharraf prepared to switch to a strictly civilian role by resigning from his position as commander-in-chief of the armed forces. He still faced other legal obstacles to running for re-election. On 2 October 2007, Gen. Musharraf named Lt. Gen. Ashfaq Kayani, as vice chief of the army starting 8 October with the intent that if Musharraf won the presidency and resigned his military post, Kayani would become chief of the army. Meanwhile, Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed stated that officials agreed to grant Benazir Bhutto amnesty
versus pending corruption charges. She has emphasized the smooth transition and return to civilian rule and has asked Pervez Musharraf to shed uniform. On 5 October 2007, Musharraf signed the National Reconciliation Ordinance, giving amnesty to Bhutto and other political leaders—except exiled former premier Nawaz Sharif—in all court cases against them, including all corruption charges. The Ordinance came a day before Musharraf faced the crucial presidential poll. Both Bhutto's opposition party, the PPP, and the ruling PMLQ, were involved in negotiations beforehand about the deal. In return, Bhutto and the PPP agreed not to boycott the Presidential election. On 6 October 2007, Musharraf won a parliamentary election for President. However, the Supreme Court ruled that no winner can be officially proclaimed until it finishes deciding on whether it was legal for Musharraf to run for President while remaining Army General. Bhutto's PPP party did not join the other opposition parties' boycott of the election, but did abstain from voting. Later, Bhutto demanded security coverage on-par with the President's. Bhutto also contracted foreign security firms for her protection.
Bhutto was well aware of the risk to her own life that might result from her return from exile to campaign for the leadership position. In an interview on 28 September 2007, with reporter Wolf Blitzer
of CNN
, she readily admitted the possibility of attack on herself.
After eight years in exile in Dubai
and London
, Bhutto returned to Karachi
on 18 October 2007, to prepare for the 2008 national elections
.
En route to a rally in Karachi on 18 October 2007, two explosions occurred shortly after Bhutto had landed and left Jinnah International Airport
. She was not injured but the explosions, later found to be a suicide-bomb attack
, killed 136 people and injured at least 450. The dead included at least 50 of the security guards from her PPP who had formed a human chain around her truck to keep potential bombers away, as well as six police officers. A number of senior officials were injured. Bhutto, after nearly ten hours of the parade through Karachi, ducked back down into the steel command center to remove her sandals from her swollen feet, moments before the bomb went off.
She was escorted unharmed from the scene.
Bhutto later claimed that she had warned the Pakistani government that suicide bomb squads would target her upon her return to Pakistan and that the government had failed to act. She was careful not to blame Pervez Musharraf
for the attacks, accusing instead "certain individuals within the government who abuse their positions, who abuse their powers" to advance the cause of Islamic militants. Shortly after the attempt on her life, Bhutto wrote a letter to Musharraf naming four persons whom she suspected of carrying out the attack. Those named included Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi
, a rival PML-Q politician and chief minister of Pakistan's Punjab province, Hamid Gul, former director of the Inter-Services Intelligence
, and Ijaz Shah
, the director general of the Intelligence Bureau, another of the country's intelligence agencies. All those named are close associates of General Musharraf. Bhutto had a long history of accusing parts of the government, particularly Pakistan's premier military intelligence agencies, of working against her and her party because they oppose her liberal, secular agenda. Bhutto claimed that the ISI has for decades backed militant Islamic groups in Kashmir
and in Afghanistan
. She was protected by her vehicle and a "human cordon" of supporters who had anticipated suicide attacks and formed a chain around her to prevent potential bombers from getting near her. The total number of injured, according to PPP sources, stood at 1000, with at least 160 dead (The New York Times claims 134 dead and about 450 injured).
A few days later, Bhutto's lawyer Senator Farooq H. Naik said he received a letter threatening to kill his client.
, accompanied by hundreds of supporters. While acknowledging that Pakistan faced a political crisis, she noted that Musharraf's declaration of emergency, unless lifted, would make it very difficult to have fair elections. She commented that "The extremists need a dictatorship, and dictatorship needs extremists."
On 8 November 2007, Bhutto was placed under house arrest
just a few hours before she was due to lead and address a rally against the state of emergency.
During a telephone interview with National Public Radio in the United States, Ms. Bhutto said "I have freedom of movement within the house. I do not have freedom of movement outside the house. They've got a heavy police force inside the house, and we've got a very heavy police force - 4,000 policemen around the four walls of my house, 1,000 on each. They've even entered the neighbors' house. And I was just telling one of the policemen, I said 'should you be here after us? Should not you be looking for Osama bin Laden?' And he said, 'I'm sorry, ma'am, this is our job. We're just doing what we are told.'"
The following day, the Pakistani government announced that Bhutto's arrest warrant had been withdrawn and that she would be free to travel and to appear at public rallies. However, leaders of other opposition political parties remained prohibited from speaking in public.
on Al Jazeera
, stating Osama Bin Laden
had been murdered by Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh
, who is one of the men convicted of kidnapping and killing U.S. journalist Daniel Pearl
. Frost never asked a follow up question regarding the claim that Bin Laden was dead. Her interview could later be viewed on BBC
's website, although it was initially distorted by the BBC as her claim about Bin Laden's death was taken out. But, once people discovered this and started posting evidence on YouTube
, the BBC replaced its version with the version that was originally aired on Al Jazeera.
This led to conspiracy theories which conveniently ignore the fact that Bhutto referred to Osama Bin Laden
as being alive after the David Frost
interview.
On 24 November 2007, Bhutto filed her nomination papers for January's Parliamentary elections; two days later, she filed papers in the Larkana constituency for two regular seats. She did so as former Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif
, following seven years of exile in Saudi Arabia
, made his much-contested return to Pakistan and bid for candidacy.
When sworn in again on 30 November 2007, this time as a civilian president after relinquishing his post as military chief, Musharraf announced his plan to lift the Pakistan's state of emergency rule on 16 December. Bhutto welcomed the announcement and launched a manifesto outlining her party's domestic issues. Bhutto told journalists in Islamabad
that her party, the PPP, would focus on "the five E's": employment, education, energy, environment, equality.
On 4 December 2007, Bhutto met with Nawaz Sharif to publicize their demand that Musharraf fulfill his promise to lift the state of emergency before January's parliamentary elections, threatening to boycott the vote if he failed to comply. They promised to assemble a committee that would present to Musharraf the list of demands upon which their participation in the election was contingent.
On 8 December 2007, three unidentified gunmen stormed Bhutto's PPP office in the southern western province of Balochistan
. Three of Bhutto's supporters were killed.
in the run-up to the January 2008 parliamentary elections. After entering her bulletproof vehicle, Bhutto stood up through its sunroof to wave to the crowds. At this point, a gunman fired shots at her and subsequently explosives were detonated near the vehicle killing approximately 20 people. Bhutto was critically wounded and was rushed to Rawalpindi General Hospital
. She was taken into surgery at 17:35 local time
, and pronounced dead at 18:16. The cause of death, whether it was to gunshot wounds, the explosion, or a combination thereof, was not fully determined until February 2008. Eventually, Scotland Yard investigators concluded that it was due to blunt force trauma to the head as she was tossed by the explosion.
Al-Qaeda
commander Mustafa Abu al-Yazid claimed responsibility for the attack, and the Pakistani government stated that it had proof that Baitullah Mehsud
, affiliated with Lashkar i Jhangvi—an al-Qaeda-linked militant group—was the mastermind. However this was vigorously disputed by the Bhutto family, by the PPP that Bhutto had headed and by Mehsud himself. On 12 February 2011, an Anti-Terrorism Court in Rawalpindi issued an arrest warrant for Musharraf, claiming he was aware of an impending assassination attempt by the Taliban, but did not pass the information on to those responsible for protecting Bhutto.
After the assassination, there were initially a number of riots resulting in approximately 20 deaths, of which three were of police officers. President Musharraf decreed a three-day period of mourning.
Bhutto's widower 19-year-old son Bilawal Bhutto Zardari
succeeded his mother as titular head of the PPP, with his father effectively running the party until his son completes his studies at Christ Church, Oxford
.
, to give to North Korea
in exchange for information on developing ballistic missiles (Rodong-1) and that Bhutto had asked him to not tell the story during her lifetime. Nuclear expert David Albright
of the Institute of Science and International Security said the allegations "made sense" given the timeline of North Korea's nuclear program. George Perkovich of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
called Bhatia a "smart and serious guy." Selig Harrison of the Center for International Policy
called Bhatia "credible on Bhutto." The officials at the Pakistan Embassy
in Washington, D.C.
denied the claims and a senior U.S. Department of State officials dismissed them, insisting that dr. Abdul Qadeer Khan
, who had been earlier accused of proliferating secrets to North Korea (only to deny them later, prior to Bhatia's book), was the source. In spite of Pakistan Government's denial, leading experts has long believed that Khan had acted with the willingness of high government officials, and his activities were government sanction approved by President Ghulam Khan and Benazir Bhutto as Prime minister at that time, for their own benefits and personal agendas.
detonated its five nuclear devices in Pokhran Test Range
, and established itself as the sixth nuclear power. Benazir and the elite members of the Pakistan Peoples Party
's Central Executive Committee
publicly called for the Pakistan's nuclear tests, in response to India. However, it was later affirmed that Benazir and the People's Party had called for these tests to increase their popularity numbers— which was shattered in 1996 scandals— on the country's political scoring board. However, Benazir's calls for the tests had forced the Prime minister Nawaz Sharif to order and authorized the tests, which bloomed the Prime minister's reputation at a record level, despite Benazir Bhutto was the first one to publicly call for these tests for her own popularity.
In recent declassified and undated papers
released by Wikileaks
, Benazir Bhutto assured the americans she was against the of carrying out and conducting nuclear tests , Nawaz Sharif also made similar assurances to american diplomats. However Benazir Bhutto did not keep to that commitment and made had public calls for Pakistan to conduct tests as reply to Indian' nuclear tests (see Pokhran-II
) earlier. Bhutto maintained that the "eat grass" statements – used by former prime ministers Zulfikar Bhutto
and Navaz Sharif – have been used to assure people of Pakistan that austerity measures would be adopted but national security would not be compromised. In an undated leaks, Bhutto was sought by the United States to soften her stance and support for nuclear tests, and cautioned Bhutto that her reaction to India’s tests had been criticized in the West
. Bhutto and her party's officials that the PPP publicly state that the issue of tests was too important to be used as a “political football”. While talking to an American diplomat, Bhutto said that the time for the test had passed and it would have a disastrous impact on Pakistan’s economy and international reputation. Bhutto said that, "I cannot say these things publicly, but neither will I call for a detonation". While Benazir Bhutto calculated her rival's popularity in Pakistan after the Prime minister had authorized the tests. Benazir Bhutto asserted that these tests "had erased the existed doubts and fear from the minds of people of Pakistan who questioned Pakistan's deterrence capability after 1971 collapse
".
— a presidential ordnance enforced to subordinate and suppress woman's rights and minority religious activities in Pakistan.
who denied to work with Benazir Bhutto supposedly due to disagreement with her policies, notably the issue nationalization
. Critics noted that Bhutto sidelined Urdu-speaking Muhajir sentiment in the party and feudal leaders and notable Sindhi nationalist were part of Benanzir's party. Benazir Bhutto, as opposed to her father, hated and strongly disliked Urdu-speaking Muhajirs, and considered them third-class citizens of Pakistan..
, when Urdu-speaking communities voted for Navaz Sharif who over-overwhelmingly won the election, securing victory both in landslide and Electoral vote
. For some observers, it was the worst parliamentary defeat of People's Party and Bhutto since the party's inception where Bhutto and People's party failed to secure any vote bank in the country..
, Muree Road of Rawalpindi as Benazir Bhutto Road and Rawalpindi General Hospital as Benazir Bhutto Hospital. Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gillani
, a member of Bhutto's PPP ,also asked President Pervez Musharraf
to pardon
convicts on death row
on her birthday in honour of Bhutto.
The city of Nawabshah
in Sindh
was renamed Benazirabad in her honor.
A university in the Dir Upper district of NWFP is opened in her name.Benazir Income Support Program (BISP), a program which provides benefits to the poorest Pakistanis, is named after Bhutto.
At the time of Bhutto's death, the manuscript for her third book, to be called Reconciliation: Islam, Democracy and the West, had been received by HarperCollins
. The book, written with Mark Siegel, was published in February 2008.
Media coverage
Articles
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Democratic socialism
Democratic socialism is a description used by various socialist movements and organizations to emphasize the democratic character of their political orientation...
who served as the 11th Prime Minister of Pakistan
Prime Minister of Pakistan
The Prime Minister of Pakistan , is the Head of Government of Pakistan who is designated to exercise as the country's Chief Executive. By the Constitution of Pakistan, Pakistan has the parliamentary democratic system of government...
in two non-consecutive terms from 1988 until 1990 and 1993 until 1996.
In 1982, at age 29, Benazir Bhutto became the chairwoman of the Pakistan Peoples Party
Pakistan Peoples Party
The Pakistan Peoples Party , is a democratic socialist political party in Pakistan affiliated with Socialist International. Pakistan People's Party is the largest political party of Pakistan...
(PPP)—a democratic socialist
Social democracy
Social democracy is a political ideology of the center-left on the political spectrum. Social democracy is officially a form of evolutionary reformist socialism. It supports class collaboration as the course to achieve socialism...
, centre-left party, making her the first woman in Pakistan to head a major political party. In 1988, she became the first woman elected to lead a Muslim state
Muslim world
The term Muslim world has several meanings. In a religious sense, it refers to those who adhere to the teachings of Islam, referred to as Muslims. In a cultural sense, it refers to Islamic civilization, inclusive of non-Muslims living in that civilization...
and was also Pakistan's first (and thus far, only) female prime minister. Noted for her charismatic authority
Charismatic authority
The sociologist Max Weber defined charismatic authority as "resting on devotion to the exceptional sanctity, heroism or exemplary character of an individual person, and of the normative patterns or order revealed or ordained by him." Charismatic authority is one of three forms of authority laid out...
and political astuteness, Benazir Bhutto drove initiatives for Pakistan's economy
Economy of Pakistan
The economy of Pakistan is the 47th largest in the world in nominal terms and 27th largest in the world in terms of purchasing power parity . Pakistan has a semi-industrialized economy, which mainly encompasses textiles, chemicals, food processing, agriculture and other industries...
and national security, and she implemented social capitalist
Social capitalism
Social capitalism , as a theory or political or philosophical stance, challenges the idea that the goals of socialism and the existing system of capitalism are inherently antagonistic. The essence of social capitalism is that markets work best and output is maximized through sound social...
policies for industrial development and growth. In addition, her political philosophy and economic policies emphasized deregulation
Deregulation
Deregulation is the removal or simplification of government rules and regulations that constrain the operation of market forces.Deregulation is the removal or simplification of government rules and regulations that constrain the operation of market forces.Deregulation is the removal or...
(particularly of the financial sector), flexible labor markets, the denationalization of state-owned corporations, and the withdrawal of subsidies to others. Benazir Bhutto's popularity waned amid recession, corruption, and high unemployment which later led to the dismissal
Eighth Amendment to the Constitution of Pakistan
The VIII Amendment to the Constitution of Pakistan, was short-time amendment to the Constitution of Pakistan, which was passed by the Majlis-e-Shoora, in the absence of elected Parliament of Pakistan, in 1985. The VIII Amendment was drafted and later enforced by the joint Technocratic-Military...
of her government by conservative President
President of Pakistan
The President of Pakistan is the head of state, as well as figurehead, of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan. Recently passed an XVIII Amendment , Pakistan has a parliamentary democratic system of government. According to the Constitution, the President is chosen by the Electoral College to serve a...
Ghulam Ishaq Khan
Ghulam Ishaq Khan
Ghulam Ishaq Khan , abbreviated as GIK, was the seventh President of Pakistan from August 17, 1988 until July 18, 1993 and a career statesman from the start to the end of cold war...
.
In 1993, Benazir Bhutto was re-elected for a second term after the 1993 parliamentary elections
Pakistani general election, 1993
General elections were held in Pakistan on 6 October 1993. The election took place after both the Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and President Ghulam Ishaq Khan resigned to resolve a power struggle between them. Although the Pakistan Muslim League won the largest number of votes, the Pakistan Peoples...
. She survived an attempted coup d'état in 1995
1995 Pakistani coup d'état attempt
The Pakistan coup attempt of 1995 was a secretive plot hatched by renegade military officers and against the government of Benazir Bhutto, the Prime Minister of Pakistan. The plotters aimed to overthrow the constitutional government and establish an Military Rule in Pakistan...
, and her hard line against the trade unions and tough rhetoric opposition to her domestic political rivals and to neighboring India earned her the nickname "Iron Lady
Iron Lady
Iron Lady is a nickname that has frequently been used to describe female heads of government around the world. The term describes a "strong willed" woman...
"; she is also respectfully referred to as B.B. In 1996, the charges of corruption
Corruption charges against Benazir Bhutto
After the dismissal of Bhutto's first government on August 6, 1990 by President Ghulam Ishaq Khan on grounds of corruption, the government of Pakistan issued directives to its intelligence agencies to investigate the allegations. After the fourth national elections, Nawaz Sharif became the Prime...
leveled against her led to the final dismissal of her government by President Farooq Leghari
Farooq Leghari
Sardar Farooq Ahmad Khan Leghari was the eighth President of Pakistan from November 14, 1993 until December 2, 1997...
. Benazir Bhutto conceded her defeat in the 1997 Parliamentary elections
Pakistani general election, 1997
A general election was held in Pakistan on 3 February 1997 to elect the National Assembly of Pakistan and the four provincial assemblies. The election took place after the previous Pakistan Peoples Party government of Benazir Bhutto was dismissed by President Farooq Leghari for alleged corruption...
and went into self-imposed exile in Dubai
Dubai
Dubai is a city and emirate in the United Arab Emirates . The emirate is located south of the Persian Gulf on the Arabian Peninsula and has the largest population with the second-largest land territory by area of all the emirates, after Abu Dhabi...
, United Arab Emirates
United Arab Emirates
The United Arab Emirates, abbreviated as the UAE, or shortened to "the Emirates", is a state situated in the southeast of the Arabian Peninsula in Western Asia on the Persian Gulf, bordering Oman, and Saudi Arabia, and sharing sea borders with Iraq, Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, and Iran.The UAE is a...
in 1998.
After nine years of self-exile, she returned to Pakistan on 18 October 2007, after having reached an understanding with Military President General Pervez Musharraf
Pervez Musharraf
Pervez Musharraf , is a retired four-star general who served as the 13th Chief of Army Staff and tenth President of Pakistan as well as tenth Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee. Musharraf headed and led an administrative military government from October 1999 till August 2007. He ruled...
, by which she was granted amnesty and all corruption charges were withdrawn. Benazir Bhutto was assassinated
Assassination of Benazir Bhutto
The assassination of Benazir Bhutto occurred on 27 December 2007 in Rawalpindi, Pakistan. Bhutto, twice Prime Minister of Pakistan and then-leader of the opposition Pakistan Peoples Party, had been campaigning ahead of elections due in January 2008...
on 27 December 2007, after leaving PPP's last rally in the city of Rawalpindi
Rawalpindi
Rawalpindi , locally known as Pindi, is a city in the Pothohar region of Pakistan near Pakistan's capital city of Islamabad, in the province of Punjab. Rawalpindi is the fourth largest city in Pakistan after Karachi, Lahore and Faisalabad...
, two weeks before the scheduled Pakistani general election of 2008
Pakistani general election, 2008
A general election was held in Pakistan on 18 February 2008, after being postponed from 8 January 2008. The original date was intended to elect members of the National Assembly of Pakistan, the lower house of the Majlis-e-Shoora...
in which she was a leading opposition candidate. The following year, she was named one of seven winners of the United Nations Prize in the Field of Human Rights
United Nations Prize in the Field of Human Rights
The United Nations Prizes in the Field of Human Rights were instituted by United Nations General Assembly in 1966.They are intended to "honour and commend people and organizations which have made an outstanding contribution to the promotion and protection of the human rights embodied in the...
.
Education and personal life
Benazir Bhutto was born at Pinto Hospital in KarachiKarachi
Karachi is the largest city, main seaport and the main financial centre of Pakistan, as well as the capital of the province of Sindh. The city has an estimated population of 13 to 15 million, while the total metropolitan area has a population of over 18 million...
, Dominion of Pakistan on 21 June 1953. She was the eldest child of former prime minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto
Zulfikar Ali Bhutto
Zulfikar Ali Bhutto was 9th Prime Minister of Pakistan from 1973 to 1977, and prior to that, 4th President of Pakistan from 1971 to 1973. Bhutto was the founder of the Pakistan Peoples Party — the largest and most influential political party in Pakistan— and served as its chairman until his...
, a Pakistani of Sindhi
Sindhi people
Sindhis are a Sindhi speaking socio-ethnic group of people originating from Sindh, a province Formerly of British India, now in Pakistan. Today Sindhis that live in Pakistan belong to various religious denominations including Islam, Zoroastrianism, Hinduism, Sikhism and Christianity...
descent, and Begum Nusrat Ispahani
Nusrat Bhutto
Begum Nusrat Bhutto was an Iranian-Pakistani who was the wife of the 9th Prime Minister of Pakistan Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, serving as the First Lady of Pakistan during his premiership from 1971 until Bhutto's removal in 1977. She became her husband's successor as the chairman of the Pakistan Peoples...
, an Iranian born Pakistani Shia Muslim of Kurdo-Persian descent. Her paternal grandfather was Sir Shah Nawaz Bhutto.
Bhutto was raised to speak both English
English language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
and Urdu
Urdu
Urdu is a register of the Hindustani language that is identified with Muslims in South Asia. It belongs to the Indo-European family. Urdu is the national language and lingua franca of Pakistan. It is also widely spoken in some regions of India, where it is one of the 22 scheduled languages and an...
; English was her first language and while her Urdu was fluent it was often also ungrammatical. Despite her family being Sindhi speakers, her Sindhi skills were almost non-existent.
She attended the Lady Jennings Nursery School and Convent of Jesus and Mary
Convent of Jesus and Mary (Karachi)
The Convent of Jesus and Mary, Karachi is an all girls school located in Karachi, Pakistan. It has been accepting boys from Preschool till Class 5, but is an all-girls institution from Class 6 onwards. It is owned by the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Karachi. It was built during the 1950s...
in Karachi. After two years of schooling at the Rawalpindi Presentation Convent, she was sent to the Jesus and Mary Convent
Convent of Jesus and Mary (Murree)
The Convent of Jesus and Mary, Murree is a girls school located in Murree, Punjab, Pakistan. It was founded in 1818, by a French woman named Claudine Thévenet, whose sole purpose for the school was to train young ladies so that they make good housewives and women in life.It was announced in 2007,...
at Murree
Murree
Murree city is a popular hill station and a summer resort, especially for the residents of Rawalpindi/Islamabad, and for the cities of the province of Punjab, Pakistan...
. She passed her O-level
Ordinary Level
The O-level is a subject-based qualification conferred as part of the General Certificate of Education . It was introduced as part of British educational reform in the 1950s alongside the more in-depth and academically rigorous Advanced Level in England, Wales and Northern Ireland A-level...
examinations at the age of 15. She then went on to complete her A-Levels at the Karachi Grammar School
Karachi Grammar School
Karachi Grammar School is an independent, highly selective, coeducational, English-medium school in Karachi, Sindh, Pakistan.Established in 1847 by the Reverend Henry Brereton, the first chaplain of Karachi, as a school for "English and Anglo-Indo children", it is the oldest private school in...
.
After completing her early education in Pakistan, she pursued her higher education in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
. From 1969 to 1973 she attended Radcliffe College
Radcliffe College
Radcliffe College was a women's liberal arts college in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and was the coordinate college for Harvard University. It was also one of the Seven Sisters colleges. Radcliffe College conferred joint Harvard-Radcliffe diplomas beginning in 1963 and a formal merger agreement with...
at Harvard University
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...
, where she obtained a Bachelor of Arts degree
Bachelor of Arts
A Bachelor of Arts , from the Latin artium baccalaureus, is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate course or program in either the liberal arts, the sciences, or both...
with cum laude honors in comparative government. She was also elected to Phi Beta Kappa. Bhutto would later call her time at Harvard "four of the happiest years of my life" and said it formed "the very basis of her belief in democracy". Later in 1995 as Prime Minister, she would arrange a gift from the Pakistani government to Harvard Law School
Harvard Law School
Harvard Law School is one of the professional graduate schools of Harvard University. Located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, it is the oldest continually-operating law school in the United States and is home to the largest academic law library in the world. The school is routinely ranked by the U.S...
. In June 2006, she received an Honorary LL.D degree from the University of Toronto.
The next phase of her education took place in the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
. Between 1973 and 1977 Bhutto studied Philosophy, Politics, and Economics
Philosophy, Politics, and Economics
Philosophy, politics, and economics is a popular interdisciplinary undergraduate/graduate degree which combines study from the three disciplines...
at Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford
Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford
Lady Margaret Hall is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England, located at the end of Norham Gardens in north Oxford. As of 2006 the college had an estimated financial endowment of £34m....
, during which time she completed additional courses in International Law
International law
Public international law concerns the structure and conduct of sovereign states; analogous entities, such as the Holy See; and intergovernmental organizations. To a lesser degree, international law also may affect multinational corporations and individuals, an impact increasingly evolving beyond...
and Diplomacy
Diplomacy
Diplomacy is the art and practice of conducting negotiations between representatives of groups or states...
. After LMH she attended St Catherine's College, Oxford
St Catherine's College, Oxford
St Catherine's College, often called Catz, is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England. Its motto is Nova et Vetera...
and in December 1976 she was elected president of the Oxford Union
Oxford Union
The Oxford Union Society, commonly referred to simply as the Oxford Union, is a debating society in the city of Oxford, Britain, whose membership is drawn primarily but not exclusively from the University of Oxford...
, becoming the first Asian woman to head the prestigious debating society.
On 18 December 1987, she married Asif Ali Zardari
Asif Ali Zardari
Asif Ali Zardari is the 11th and current President of Pakistan and the Co-Chairman of the ruling Pakistan Peoples Party . He is also the widower of Benazir Bhutto, who served two nonconsecutive terms as Prime Minister....
in Karachi. The couple had three children: two daughters, Bakhtawar and Asifa, and a son, Bilawal. When she gave birth to Bakhtawar in 1990, she became the first modern head of government to give birth while in office.
Family
Benazir Bhutto's father, Prime MinisterPrime Minister of Pakistan
The Prime Minister of Pakistan , is the Head of Government of Pakistan who is designated to exercise as the country's Chief Executive. By the Constitution of Pakistan, Pakistan has the parliamentary democratic system of government...
Zulfikar Ali Bhutto
Zulfikar Ali Bhutto
Zulfikar Ali Bhutto was 9th Prime Minister of Pakistan from 1973 to 1977, and prior to that, 4th President of Pakistan from 1971 to 1973. Bhutto was the founder of the Pakistan Peoples Party — the largest and most influential political party in Pakistan— and served as its chairman until his...
, was removed from office following a military coup in 1977 led by the then chief of army
Chief of Army Staff of the Pakistan Army
The Chief of Army Staff of Pakistan Army, shortly abbreviated as COAS, is the highest staff post in the Pakistan Army, held by the senior 4-star rank officer. It is the highest and most prestigious 4-star assignment, unless the 4-star officer is appointed as the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of...
General Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq
Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq
General Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq , was the 4th Chief Martial Law Administrator and the sixth President of Pakistan from July 1977 to his death in August 1988...
, who imposed martial law
Martial law
Martial law is the imposition of military rule by military authorities over designated regions on an emergency basis— only temporary—when the civilian government or civilian authorities fail to function effectively , when there are extensive riots and protests, or when the disobedience of the law...
but promised to hold elections within three months. Nevertheless, instead of fulfilling the promise of holding general elections, General Zia charged Bhutto with conspiring to murder the father of dissident politician Ahmed Raza Kasuri
Ahmed Raza Kasuri
Sahibzada Ahmed Raza Khan Kasuri is a former Pakistani politician from the Punjab province.-References:...
. Mr. Zulfikar Ali Bhutto was sentenced to death by the martial law court.
Despite the accusation being "widely doubted by the public", and many clemency appeals from foreign leaders, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto was hanged on 4 April 1979. Appeals for clemency were dismissed by acting President General Zia. Benazir Bhutto and her mother were held in a "police camp" until the end of May, after the execution.
Zia's military dictatorship
Bhutto's childrenBhutto family
The Bhutto family is a political family in Pakistan. Bhutto is a Rajput tribe settled in Sindh.-List of family members:* Pir Bakhsh Bhutto* * Khuda Bakhsh Bhutto, Ameer Bakhsh Bhutto, Illahi Bux Bhutto...
and mother
Nusrat Bhutto
Begum Nusrat Bhutto was an Iranian-Pakistani who was the wife of the 9th Prime Minister of Pakistan Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, serving as the First Lady of Pakistan during his premiership from 1971 until Bhutto's removal in 1977. She became her husband's successor as the chairman of the Pakistan Peoples...
founded difficult to struggle against the ruthless military dictatorship of Zia-ul-Haq. Benazir Bhutto and her younger brother Murtaza Bhutto
Murtaza Bhutto
Dr. Mir Ghulam Murtaza Bhutto was a Pakistani politician and the Member of the Parliament of Pakistan, representing Pakistan People's Party from the Larkana constituency...
spent the next eighteen months in and out of house arrest
House arrest
In justice and law, house arrest is a measure by which a person is confined by the authorities to his or her residence. Travel is usually restricted, if allowed at all...
as she struggled to rally political support to force General Zia-ul-Haq to drop murder charges against her father. General Zia-ul-Haq ignored worldwide appeals for clemency and had Zulfikar Bhutto hanged in April 1979 despite appeals of clemency were called worldwide. Following the hanging of her father, Benazir Bhutto was arrested repeatedly, however, following PPP's victory in the local elections Zia postponed the national elections indefinitely and moved Benazir Bhutto and her mother Nusrat Bhutto from Karachi to Larkana. This was the seventh time that Benazir Bhutto had been arrested within two years of the military coup. After repeatedly placing her under house arrest, the regime finally imprisoned her under solitary confinement in a desert cell in Sindhi province during the summer of 1981. She described the conditions in her wall-less cage in her book "Daughter of Destiny", which goes by the title of "Daughter of the East" in Commonwealth countries for copyright reasons:
After her six month imprisonment in Sukkur jail, she remained hospitalized for months after which she was shifted to Karachi Central Jail
Karachi Central Jail
Central Prison Karachi is a prison in the city of Karachi in Sindh, Pakistan. It houses more than 6,000 prisoners including convicted terrorists that include militants who attempted to assassinate President of Pakistan Pervez Musharraf..-External links:* *...
, where she remained imprisoned until 11 December 1981. She was then placed under house arrests in Larkana and Karachi for eleven and fourteen months respectively.
Self-exile in London
In January 1984, after six years of house arrests and imprisonment, Zia succumbed to international pressure and allowed Benazir Bhutto to travel abroad for medical reasons. After undergoing surgery, she resumed her political activities and began to raise concerns about the mistreatment of political prisoners in Pakistan at the behest of Zia regime. The intensified pressure forced General Zia into holding a referendum to give a certain legitimacy to his government. The referendum held on 1 December 1984 proved to be a farce: only 10% of the voters bothered to turn out despite the state machinery. In 1985, Benazir Bhutto received a disastrous news of Shahnawaz BhuttoShahnawaz Bhutto
Shahnawaz Bhutto Sindhi: شاھنواز ڀٽو was the son of Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto and Begum Nusrat Bhutto. Shahnawaz Bhutto was the youngest of Bhutto’s four children...
who was brutally poisoned a local hotel at Nice' France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
. The Bhutto family believed that this was done under the hidden directives of General Zia-ul-Haq, prompting Zulfikar Bhutto's children to hide.
Further pressure from the international community forced General Zia to hold elections, for a unicameral legislature on a non-party basis. The Benazir Bhutto thus announced a boycott of the election on the grounds that they were not being held in accordance with the constitution of Pakistan. She continued to raise her voice against human rights violations by the regime and addressed the European Parliament in Strasbourg in 1985. In retaliation to the speech, Zia announced death sentences for 54 workers of her party at a military court in Lahore headed by Zia himself.
Political campaign
House arrest
In justice and law, house arrest is a measure by which a person is confined by the authorities to his or her residence. Travel is usually restricted, if allowed at all...
in the wake of her father's imprisonment and subsequent execution. Having been allowed to return to the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
in 1984, she became a leader in exile of the People's Party of Pakistan (PPP). For the first time in the history of Pakistan, Benazir Bhutto was the first woman to head a major political party though she was unable to make her political presence felt in Pakistan until after the death of General Zia-ul-Haq
Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq
General Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq , was the 4th Chief Martial Law Administrator and the sixth President of Pakistan from July 1977 to his death in August 1988...
. She had succeeded her mother as leader of the PPP and the pro-democracy opposition to the General Zia-ul-Haq regime.
1988 Parliamentary elections
The seat, from which Benazir contested for the safe constituency for the post of Prime Minister in 1980s, namely, NA 207. This seat was considered a Bhutto Clan's post and first contested in 1926 by the late Sardar Wahid Bux Bhutto, in the first ever elections in Sindh, British Indian Empire. The elections were for the Central Legislative AssemblyCentral Legislative Assembly
The Central Legislative Assembly was a legislature for India created by the Government of India Act 1919 from the former Imperial Legislative Council, implementing the Montagu-Chelmsford Reforms...
of India. Sardar Wahid Bux won, and became not only the first elected representative from Sindh to a democratically elected parliament, but also the youngest member of the Central Legislative Assembly, aged 27. Wahid Bux's achievement was monumental as it was he who was the first Bhutto elected to a government, from a seat that would, thereafter always be contested by his family members.
Therefore, it was he who provided the breakthrough and a start to this cycle. Sardar Wahid Bux went on to be elected to the Bombay Council as well. After Wahid Bux's untimely and mysterious death at the age of 33, his younger brother Nawab Nabi Bux Bhutto contested from the same seat and remained undefeated until retirement. It was Nabi Bux who then gave this seat to Zulfikar Ali Bhutto to contest in 1970. On 16 November 1988, in the first open political elections in more than a decade were held, and Benazir Bhutto securing the victory in major provinces of Pakistan and had the largest percentile for the seats in the National Assembly
National Assembly of Pakistan
The National Assembly of Pakistan is the lower house of the bicameral Majlis-e-Shura, which also compromises the President of Pakistan and Senate . The National Assembly and the Senate both convene at Parliament House in Islamabad...
— a lower house of Parliament.
First term (1988–1990)
Benazir Bhutto became 11th Prime minister on 2 December, 1988. Arriving at Prime minister SecretariatPrime Minister of Pakistan
The Prime Minister of Pakistan , is the Head of Government of Pakistan who is designated to exercise as the country's Chief Executive. By the Constitution of Pakistan, Pakistan has the parliamentary democratic system of government...
, Benazir Bhutto addresses the huge crowd:
Initially, Benazir Bhutto formed a coalition government
Coalition government
A coalition government is a cabinet of a parliamentary government in which several political parties cooperate. The usual reason given for this arrangement is that no party on its own can achieve a majority in the parliament...
, formed with MQM— a liberal forrces, as her ally, on 2 December. However at time passes, Bhutto successfully and quietly isolated MQM from government influence, and later ousted MQM from her government, establishing a single party government and claiming the entire mandate from all of Pakistan. During this time, the effects of General Zia's domestic policies
Zia-ul-Haq's Islamization
On December 2, 1978, General Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq delivered a nationwide address on the occasion of the first day of the Hijra calendar. He did this in order to usher in an Islamic system to Pakistan...
began to arise in the country, which she founded difficult to counter. During her first term, Benazir Bhutto vowed to repeal the controversial Hudood Ordinance
Hudood Ordinance
The Hudood Ordinance was a law in Pakistan that was enacted in 1979 as part of then-military ruler Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq's Islamization and replaced or revised in 2006 by the Women's Protection Bill....
and to revert the Eight Amendment
Eighth Amendment to the Constitution of Pakistan
The VIII Amendment to the Constitution of Pakistan, was short-time amendment to the Constitution of Pakistan, which was passed by the Majlis-e-Shoora, in the absence of elected Parliament of Pakistan, in 1985. The VIII Amendment was drafted and later enforced by the joint Technocratic-Military...
to the Constitution of Pakistan
Constitution of Pakistan
The Constitution of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan is the supreme law of Pakistan. Known as the Constitution of 1973, it was drafted by the government of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto and, following additions by the opposition parties, was approved by the legislative assembly on April 10, 1973...
. Benazir Bhutto also promised to shift Pakistan's Semi-presidential system
Semi-presidential system
The semi-presidential system is a system of government in which a president and a prime minister are both active participants in the day-to-day administration of the state...
to Parliamentary system
Parliamentary system
A parliamentary system is a system of government in which the ministers of the executive branch get their democratic legitimacy from the legislature and are accountable to that body, such that the executive and legislative branches are intertwined....
. But none of the reforms were made and Benazir began to struggle with conservative President Ghulam Ishaq Khan
Ghulam Ishaq Khan
Ghulam Ishaq Khan , abbreviated as GIK, was the seventh President of Pakistan from August 17, 1988 until July 18, 1993 and a career statesman from the start to the end of cold war...
over the issues of executive authorities. President Khan vetoed laws and ordinances as he saw that these laws were being proposed and made to lessen Presidential authority. Benazir Bhutto's accomplishments during this time were in initiatives for nationalist reform and modernization, that some conservatives characterized as Westernization.
Relations with India and Afghanistan war
Benazir took the office in the crucial and penultimate decade of Cold warCold War
The Cold War was the continuing state from roughly 1946 to 1991 of political conflict, military tension, proxy wars, and economic competition between the Communist World—primarily the Soviet Union and its satellite states and allies—and the powers of the Western world, primarily the United States...
, and closely aligned with the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
President George H. Bush
George H. W. Bush
George Herbert Walker Bush is an American politician who served as the 41st President of the United States . He had previously served as the 43rd Vice President of the United States , a congressman, an ambassador, and Director of Central Intelligence.Bush was born in Milton, Massachusetts, to...
, based on mutual their distrust of Communism
Communism
Communism is a social, political and economic ideology that aims at the establishment of a classless, moneyless, revolutionary and stateless socialist society structured upon common ownership of the means of production...
, although she strongly opposed United States support of Afghan Mujaheddin which she labeled them as "America's Frankestein" during her first state visit to United States in 1989. Benazir Bhutto's government oversaw and witnessed the major events in the alignment of the world. On the Western fronts, the Soviet Union
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
was withdrawing
Soviet troop withdrawal from Afghanistan
The Withdrawal of Soviet combatant forces from the Afghanistan began on May 15, 1988 and successfully executed on February 15, 1989 under the leadership of Colonel-General Boris Gromov who also was the last Soviet general officer to walk from the Asfghanistan back into Soviet territory through the...
its combatant forces in Afghan Socialist Soviet Republic and the United States-Pakistan alliance had broken off with the United States suspicions on nuclear weapons, in 1990. Benazir Bhutto deliberately attempted to warm the relations with neighboring India and met with Rajiv Gandhi
Rajiv Gandhi
Rajiv Ratna Gandhi was the sixth Prime Minister of India . He took office after his mother's assassination on 31 October 1984; he himself was assassinated on 21 May 1991. He became the youngest Prime Minister of India when he took office at the age of 40.Rajiv Gandhi was the elder son of Indira...
in 1989 where she negotiated for a trade agreement when the Indian Premier paid a farewell visit to Pakistan. The goodwill relations with India continued until 1990 after V. P. Singh
V. P. Singh
Vishwanath Pratap Singh was the seventh Prime Minister of India and the 41st Raja Bahadur of Manda.-Early life:...
succeeded Gandhi as Premier. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)
Bharatiya Janata Party
The Bharatiya Janata Party ,; translation: Indian People's Party) is one of the two major political parties in India, the other being the Indian National Congress. Established in 1980, it is India's second largest political party in terms of representation in the parliament...
influence on Singh forced him to abrogate with agreements, and the tensions began to arise with Pakistan after BJP forced its hardline policies on Kashmir to Pakistan. Soon, the V.P. Singh administration launched the military operation in Kashmir to curbed the liberation movement. As in response, Benazir gave authorization for alleged covert and operations to support Kashmiri succession movements in Indian Kashmir , but in 1990, Major-General Pervez Musharraf
Pervez Musharraf
Pervez Musharraf , is a retired four-star general who served as the 13th Chief of Army Staff and tenth President of Pakistan as well as tenth Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee. Musharraf headed and led an administrative military government from October 1999 till August 2007. He ruled...
who was the Director-General
Director-general
The term director-general is a title given the highest executive officer within a governmental, statutory, NGO, third sector or not-for-profit institution.-European Union:...
of the Directorate-General for the Military Operations (DGMO), persuaded to Benazir Bhutto and proposed a strategic plan against India. It was a plan for a Kargil Infiltration, but Benazir asked General Musharraf how the international pressure would be countered. Musharraf remained silence, therefore Benazir rebuffed the plan. In 1988, Lieutenant-General Hamid Gul met with the Prime minister and advocated for the plan of supporting the Khalistan movement
Khalistan movement
Khalistan refers to a global political secessionist movement to create a separate Sikh state, called Khālistān , carved out of parts mostly consisting of the Punjab region of India, depending on definition....
, a Sikh
Sikh
A Sikh is a follower of Sikhism. It primarily originated in the 15th century in the Punjab region of South Asia. The term "Sikh" has its origin in Sanskrit term शिष्य , meaning "disciple, student" or शिक्ष , meaning "instruction"...
nationalist movement. General Gul justified his actions as this movement as the only way of preempting a fresh Indian threat to Pakistan's territorial integrity. Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto disagreed with his views and asked him to stop playing this "Card". General Gul refused and, politely told the Prime minister Benazir Bhutto in mocking French accent
French language
French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...
that, "Madame' Prime minister, keeping [Indian] Punjab destabilized is equivalent... to the Pakistan Army
Pakistan Army
The Pakistan Army is the branch of the Pakistani Armed Forces responsible for land-based military operations. The Pakistan Army came into existence after the Partition of India and the resulting independence of Pakistan in 1947. It is currently headed by General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani. The Pakistan...
.... having an extra division at no cost to the taxpayers...".
On the Western front, Benazir Bhutto also approved and authorized further aggressive military operations in Afghanistan to topple the fragile communist regime and the Soviet influence in the region
Post-Soviet states
The post-Soviet states, also commonly known as the Former Soviet Union or former Soviet republics, are the 15 independent states that split off from the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics in its dissolution in December 1991...
. One of her notable military authorization was the military action in Jalalabad
Jalalabad
Jalalabad , formerly called Adinapour, as documented by the 7th century Hsüan-tsang, is a city in eastern Afghanistan. Located at the junction of the Kabul River and Kunar River near the Laghman valley, Jalalabad is the capital of Nangarhar province. It is linked by approximately of highway with...
of Soviet Afghanistan to teach Soviet Union a lesson for their long unconditional support to India and proxy war in pakistan, and to avenge Pakistan's loss in 1965 and 1971 war. This operation was "a defining moment for her [Benazir's] government" to prove the loyalty to Pakistan Armed Forces. This operation planned by then-Director General of the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) Lieutenant-General Hamid Gul
General Hamid Gul
Lieutenant General Hamid Gul, HI, SBt, is a retired Pakistani Army three-star general who served as the Director General of the Inter-Services Intelligence , Pakistan's premier intelligence agency, between 1987 and 1989 during the late stages of and after the Soviet-Afghan War...
, with impulsion of U.S. ambassador to Pakistan
United States Ambassador to Pakistan
The U.S. embassy in Karachi was established August 15, 1947 with Edward W. Holmes as Chargé d'Affaires ad interim, pending the appointment of an ambassador. The first ambassador, Paul H. Alling, was appointed on September 20, 1947. Anne W. Patterson was nominated as United States Ambassador to...
Robert Oakley. Known as Battle of Jalalabad, it was intended to gain a conventional victory on Soviet Union
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
after Soviet Union had withdrawn
Soviet troop withdrawal from Afghanistan
The Withdrawal of Soviet combatant forces from the Afghanistan began on May 15, 1988 and successfully executed on February 15, 1989 under the leadership of Colonel-General Boris Gromov who also was the last Soviet general officer to walk from the Asfghanistan back into Soviet territory through the...
its troops. The central planner of this operation was Lieutenant-General Hamid Gul
General Hamid Gul
Lieutenant General Hamid Gul, HI, SBt, is a retired Pakistani Army three-star general who served as the Director General of the Inter-Services Intelligence , Pakistan's premier intelligence agency, between 1987 and 1989 during the late stages of and after the Soviet-Afghan War...
who gained Bhutto's permission and authorization after he had briefed her on the Afghanistan situation. The mission, planned solely by Lieutenant-General Hamid Gul, brutally failed in a matter of two months, with no effective results were produced. The morale of the mujahideen involved in the attack slumped and many local commanders ended truces with the government. Angered and frustrated with the outcomes of the operation, Benazir Bhutto, who was already displeased with Gul, immediately deposed
Deposition (law)
In the law of the United States, a deposition is the out-of-court oral testimony of a witness that is reduced to writing for later use in court or for discovery purposes. It is commonly used in litigation in the United States and Canada and is almost always conducted outside of court by the...
and sacked Lieutenant-General Hamid Gul while his rank was not degraded but his pay rate was made equivalent to Major rank officer. The decision to deposed Gul was one of her authoritative move that surprised many senior statesman, though they did backed Benazir. She replaced Gul with another Lieutenant General Shamsur Rahman Kallu
Shamsur Rahman Kallu
Lieutenant General Shamsur Rahman Kallue was a vetern intelligence officer and a general in the Pakistan Army, and then was head of the Inter Services Intelligence . The CIA wanted Kallue to meet Masoud to put forward U.S...
who proved to be more a capable officer in the Afghan war than Gul. Benazir also promoted and strengthened the relations with the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
, and met with British counter part Margaret Thatcher
Margaret Thatcher
Margaret Hilda Thatcher, Baroness Thatcher, was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1979 to 1990...
where a finance assistance and trade agreement was signed by both prime ministers. In all, during her first government, Benazir Bhutto's foreign policy revolved around Afghanistan, India, and the United States.
Science policy
While on her trip to United Kingdom in 1990, Benazir Bhutto paid a visit to dr. Abdus SalamAbdus Salam
Mohammad Abdus Salam, NI, SPk Mohammad Abdus Salam, NI, SPk Mohammad Abdus Salam, NI, SPk (Urdu: محمد عبد السلام, pronounced , (January 29, 1926– November 21, 1996) was a Pakistani theoretical physicist and Nobel laureate in Physics for his work on the electroweak unification of the...
, a Nobel laureate in Physics
Physics
Physics is a natural science that involves the study of matter and its motion through spacetime, along with related concepts such as energy and force. More broadly, it is the general analysis of nature, conducted in order to understand how the universe behaves.Physics is one of the oldest academic...
and science advisor of her father, where she had paid great respect to Abdus Salam. During her first and second term, Benazir Bhutto followed the same policy on science and technology as her father did in 1972, and promoted the military funding of science and technology
Military funding of science
The military funding of science has had a powerful transformative effect on the practice and products of scientific research since the early 20th century...
as part of her policy. However, in 1988, Benazir Bhutto was denied access to any of the country's classified national research institutes run under the Pakistan Armed Forces which maintained under the control of civilian President Ghulam Ishaq Khan and the Chief of Army Staff. Ironically, Benazir Bhutto was deliberately kept unaware about the progress of the nuclear complexes when country passed the milestone of manufacturing fissile core decades ago. The U.S. Ambassador, Robert Oakley, was the first diplomat to have notified about the complexes in 1988. Shortly after this, Benazir summoned Chairman of the PAEC
Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission
The Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission, , is an administrative governmental and autonomous science and technology governmental department of Pakistan, responsible for development of nuclear energy and development of nuclear power sector in Pakistan...
, Munir Ahmad Khan
Munir Ahmad Khan
Munir Ahmad Khan , HI, was a Pakistani nuclear engineer and a scientist who served as the Chairman of the Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission from 1972 to 1991...
who she knew since 1975 in her office where Khan brought dr. Abdul Qadeer Khan
Abdul Qadeer Khan
Abdul Qadeer Khan , also known in Pakistan as Mohsin-e-Pakistan , D.Eng, Sc.D, HI, NI , FPAS; more widely known as Dr. A. Q...
with him and introduced dr. Khan to the prime minister. At there, Benazir Bhutto learned to status of this crash program which had been matured since 1978, and on behalf of dr. Khan Benazir first paid the visit to KRL
Khan Research Laboratories
The Khan Research Laboratories ,, formerly known as Engineering Research Laboratories , is a multi-program Pakistan's weapons science and engineering research and development institute and nuclear research facility...
in 1989 which angered the President Ghulam Ishaq Khan. Benazir Bhutto also responded to Khan when she moved the Ministry of Science and Technology
Ministry of Science and Technology (Pakistan)
The Ministry of Science and Technology , is a Cabinet-level ministry of government of Pakistan concerned with science and technology in Pakistan and in general, Pakistan's science policies, planning, coordination and directing of efforts to initiate and launch scientific and technological programs...
's office to the Prime minister Secretariat with Munir Ahmad Khan directly reporting to her. Benazir Bhutto had successfully eliminated any possibilities of Khan's involvement or any influence in science research programmes, a policy which also benefited Nawaz Sharif
Nawaz Sharif
Mian Mohammad Nawaz Sharif is a Pakistani conservative politician and steel magnate who served as 12th Prime Minister of Pakistan in two non-consecutive terms from November 1990 to July 1993, and from February 1997 to October 12, 1999...
. During her first and second term, Benazir Bhutto issued funding of many projects entirely devoted to country's national defence and security. Dismissal of Lieutenant-General Gul by Benazir Bhutto had played a significant role on Chief of Army Staff General Mirza Aslam Beg
Mirza Aslam Beg
General Mirza Aslam Beg, SBt, HI, NI, afwc, psc , is a retired four-star general who was the Chief of Army Staff of the Pakistan Army succeeding General Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq, after the latter died in an air crash on 17 August 1988...
who did not interfere in the matters science and technology, remained supportive towards Benazir Bhutto's hard line actions on the President.
In 1980s, Benazir Bhutto started the aerospace projects such as Project Sabre II
Project Sabre II
Project Sabre II was an attempt to develop a low-cost multi-role combat aircraft based on an existing design, the Chengdu F-7M . The project was initiated by the Pakistan Air Force and the Grumman Aerospace Corporation was contracted to work with specialists from the PAF and China to define and...
, Project PAC, Ghauri project
Ghauri (missile)
The Hatf V, named Ghauri , is a medium-range ballistic missile developed by Kahuta Research Laboratories of Pakistan. Powered by a single stage liquid fuel rocket motor, the missile has an optimum range of 1,500 km and can carry a payload of 700 kg...
under dr. Abdul Qadeer Khan in 1990 and the Shaheen programme
Shaheen-I
The Shaheen missile series, named after a species of falcon found in the mountains of Pakistan, was developed by NESCOM's National Defence Complex of Pakistan...
in 1995 under dr. Samar Mubarakmand. During her second term, Benazir Bhutto declared "1996", an year of "information technology
Information technology
Information technology is the acquisition, processing, storage and dissemination of vocal, pictorial, textual and numerical information by a microelectronics-based combination of computing and telecommunications...
", and envisioned her policy as making Pakistan "global player" in the information technology. One of her initiatives was the launching of the an ambitious package of computer literacy
Computer literacy
Computer literacy is defined as the knowledge and ability to use computers and related technology efficiently, with a range of skills covering levels from elementary use to programming and advanced problem solving. Computer literacy can also refer to the comfort level someone has with using...
through the private sector participation. Benazir issued an executive decree allowing to complete duty-tariff free imports of hardware and software exports, and to provide a low rate for data communications in public and private sector. Benazir Bhutto also established and sat up the infrastructure of of soft-ware technology parks in rural and urban cities, and approved a financial assistance loan for soft-ware houses for public sector.
Nuclear weapons programme
As oppose to conservative Nawaz SharifNawaz Sharif
Mian Mohammad Nawaz Sharif is a Pakistani conservative politician and steel magnate who served as 12th Prime Minister of Pakistan in two non-consecutive terms from November 1990 to July 1993, and from February 1997 to October 12, 1999...
whose policy was to make the nuclear weapons programme more benefit to economy
Economy of Pakistan
The economy of Pakistan is the 47th largest in the world in nominal terms and 27th largest in the world in terms of purchasing power parity . Pakistan has a semi-industrialized economy, which mainly encompasses textiles, chemicals, food processing, agriculture and other industries...
, Benazir Bhutto took aggressive steps and decisions to modernize and expand the integrated weapons programme founded and started by her father in 1972, was one of the key political administrative figures of Pakistan's nuclear deterrent development. Despite Benazir's denial for the authorization of the nuclear testing programme, Benazir continued to modernize the programme into new heights despite the United State's embargo, which she termed this embargo as "contractual obligation".
It was during her regime that Pressler amendment came in effect in an attempt to freeze the programme. While her frequent trips to United States, Benazir Bhutto refused to make any compromise on the nuclear weapons programme and, shifted her rogue criticism to Indian nuclear programme, and attacking Indian nuclear programme on multiple occasions. Benazir Bhutto had mislead the U.S. when she told the United States Government that the programme had been frozen, but the programme was progressively modernized and continued under her watch. Under her regime, the Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission
Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission
The Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission, , is an administrative governmental and autonomous science and technology governmental department of Pakistan, responsible for development of nuclear energy and development of nuclear power sector in Pakistan...
(PAEC) had conducted series of improvised designs of nuclear weapons designed by Theoretical Physics Group (TPG) at PAEC. Benazir Bhutto's father, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, was the father of Pakistan's nuclear deterrence programme, and was instructed to keep in touch with senior scientists involved in this programme. Benazir Bhutto also carried messages to Munir Ahmad Khan
Munir Ahmad Khan
Munir Ahmad Khan , HI, was a Pakistani nuclear engineer and a scientist who served as the Chairman of the Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission from 1972 to 1991...
from her father and back in 1979 as her father, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, had instructed his daughter to remain in touch with the Chairman of PAEC.Munir Ahmad Khan, Technical director of Pakistan's integrated weapons programme and former Chairman of Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission (PAEC), "She was the eldest child of former prime minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, 1999. In this context, Bhutto had appointed Munir Ahmad Khan as her Science Adviser who kept her informed about the development of the programme. In all, the nuclear weapons and energy program remained Benazir's top priority as with the country's economy. During her first term, the nuclear program was under attack and under pressure by the Western world, particularly the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
. Despite the economical aid was offered by the European Union and the United States as in return to halt or freeze the program, Benazir did not compromised and continued this crash program under her first and second regime.
During his first term, Bhutto had approved and launched the Shaheen programme
Shaheen-I
The Shaheen missile series, named after a species of falcon found in the mountains of Pakistan, was developed by NESCOM's National Defence Complex of Pakistan...
as she had advocated for this programme strongly. A vocal and avid supporter of the program, Bhutto also allotted funds for the programme, and strategic programs were launched under Bhutto's premiership. On 6 January 1996, Bhutto publicly announced that if India conducts a nuclear test, Pakistan could be forced to "follow suit". Bhutto later said that the day will never arise when we have to use our knowledge to make and detonate a [nuclear] device and export our technology.
Space programme
Benazir Bhutto continued her policy to modernize and expand the space programme and as part of this policy, Benazir Bhutto launched and supervised the clandestine project, Integrated research programme (IRP)— a missile programme which remained under Benazir Bhutto's watch and successfully ended in 1996, also under her auspicious. As part of her policy, Benazir constitute the establishment of National Development Complex and the University ObservatoryKU Observatory
The K.U. Observatory or Karachi University Observatory is located in the campus area of Karachi University. The KU space observatory is operated by the Institute of Space and Planetary Astrophysics and stands majestically, 15,000 feet atop a hill and surprisingly, was built to last. The space...
in Karachi University and expanded the facilities for the space research
Space and Upper Atmosphere Research Commission
The Space and Upper Atmosphere Research Commission , is an executive agency of the Government of Pakistan, responsible for nation's public and civil space program and aeronautics and aerospace research...
. Pakistan's first military satellite, Badr-I was also launched under her government through China
People's Republic of China
China , officially the People's Republic of China , is the most populous country in the world, with over 1.3 billion citizens. Located in East Asia, the country covers approximately 9.6 million square kilometres...
, while the second military satellite Badr-II
Badr-B
Badr-B The Badr-B payload was equipped with several CCD cameras, compact dosimeter, a telemetry system, charge detector and a temperature control unit...
was completed during her second democratic government term. With launching of Badr-I, Pakistan under Benazir Bhutto, became the first Muslim country to have launch and placed the satellite in Earth's orbit
Orbit
In physics, an orbit is the gravitationally curved path of an object around a point in space, for example the orbit of a planet around the center of a star system, such as the Solar System...
, second only after India. She declared the "1990", an year of space in Pakistan and conferred national awards to scientists and engineers who took participation in the development of this satellite.
Dismissal
By the 1990, Benazir Bhutto had successfully lessened the role of President Ghulam Ishaq Khan in government operations as well as Khan's importance in military also diminished. Benazir Bhutto who was thought by President Ghulam Ishaq Khan, to be a young and inexperienced figure in politics, though highly educated. But, Khan had miscalculated the capabilities of Benazir Bhutto who emerged her role as a power play in national politics. Benazir Bhutto's authoritative actions frustrated the President who was not taken in confidence while the decisions were made, and by 1990, the power struggle between the Prime minister and President was insued. Because of the Semi-presidential systemSemi-presidential system
The semi-presidential system is a system of government in which a president and a prime minister are both active participants in the day-to-day administration of the state...
, Benazir needed permission from Khan for imposing new policies, which Khan vetoed as he seen to moderate or contradict to his point of view
Point of view
Point of view, sometimes used interchangeably with viewpoint, may refer to:* Point of view or narrative mode, the perspective of the narrative voice; the pronoun used in narration* Point of view , the angle of painter vision...
. Benazir, through her legislators, also attempted to shift parliamentary democracy to replace the semi-presidential system, but Khan's constitutional powers always vetoed Benazir's attempts.
The amid tales of corruption began to surfaced in the media in the nationalized industries and corporations which undermined the credibility of Benazir Bhutto. The unemployment and labor strikes began to take place which halted and jammed the economic wheel of the country and Benazir Bhutto was unable to solve these issues due to in a cold war with the President. In November 1990, after a long political battle, Khan finally used the Eighth Amendment (VIII Amendment)
Eighth Amendment to the Constitution of Pakistan
The VIII Amendment to the Constitution of Pakistan, was short-time amendment to the Constitution of Pakistan, which was passed by the Majlis-e-Shoora, in the absence of elected Parliament of Pakistan, in 1985. The VIII Amendment was drafted and later enforced by the joint Technocratic-Military...
to dismiss Benazir Bhutto's government following charges of corruption
Corruption
Corruption usually refers to spiritual or moral impurity.Corruption may also refer to:* Corruption , an American crime film* Corruption , a British horror film...
, nepotism
Nepotism
Nepotism is favoritism granted to relatives regardless of merit. The word nepotism is from the Latin word nepos, nepotis , from which modern Romanian nepot and Italian nipote, "nephew" or "grandchild" are also descended....
, and despotism
Despotism
Despotism is a form of government in which a single entity rules with absolute power. That entity may be an individual, as in an autocracy, or it may be a group, as in an oligarchy...
. Khan soon called for new elections in 1990 where Bhutto conceded her defeat.
Parliamentary opposition (1990–1993)
Following her dismissal in 1990, the Election Commission of PakistanElection Commission of Pakistan
The Election Commission of Pakistan is an independent and autonomous constitutional body charged with the function of conducting transparent, free, fair and impartial elections to the National and Provincial Assemblies. The holding of elections to the office of the President and the Senate are,...
called for the new Parliamentary elections
Pakistani general election, 1990
General elections were held in Pakistan on 24 October 1990. The result was a victory for Islami Jamhoori Ittehad, which won 106 of the 207 seats. Voter turnout was 45.5%.-Background:...
in 1990. The Islami Jamhoori Ittehad (Islamic Democratic Alliance (IDA)
Islami Jamhoori Ittehad
Islami Jamhoori Ittehad or Islamic Democratic Alliance was formed in September 1988 to oppose the Pakistan Peoples Party in elections that year...
under the leadership of conservative leader Navaz Sharif
Nawaz Sharif
Mian Mohammad Nawaz Sharif is a Pakistani conservative politician and steel magnate who served as 12th Prime Minister of Pakistan in two non-consecutive terms from November 1990 to July 1993, and from February 1997 to October 12, 1999...
won the majority in the Parliament, Benazir Bhutto accepted her defeat soon after. For the first time in the history of Pakistan, the conservative forces had a chance to rule the country, and Navaz Sharif became 12th Prime minister of Pakistan and Benazir Bhutto was elected as the Leader of the Opposition for the next five years.
During 1990 till 1993, Benazir Bhutto worked for her voice and screen image. Pakistan affair intellectual, Anatol Lieven
Anatol Lieven
Peter Paul Anatol Lieven is a British author, journalist, and policy analyst. He is presently a Senior Researcher at the New America Foundation, where he focuses on US global strategy and the War on Terrorism, Associated Scholar of the Transnational Crisis Project, Chair of International...
, compared her accent as "cut-glass accent", but acknowledge her education and good-standing academic background. Benazir Bhutto began regularly to attend lunches at the Institute of Development Economics (IDE)
Pakistan Institute of Development Economics
Pakistan Institute of Development Economics was established at Karachi in 1957 and in 1964 accorded the status of an autonomous research organization by the Government of Pakistan. It is devoted to theoretical and empirical research in Development Economics in general and on Pakistan-related...
, a think tank founded in 1950s; she had been visiting IDE and reading its publications since the mid 1970s. During this time, the IDA launched a secret campaign against Benazir Bhutto's image to demoralized the party workers; this campaign brutally backfired on Nawaz Sharif when the media exposed the culprits and motives behind this plot. More than Rs. 5 million were spent on this campaign and it had undermined the credibility of Conservatives who also failed to resolve issues among between them.
Despite an economic recovery in the late 1993, the IDA government faced public unease about the direction of the country and a industrialization revolved and centered only in Punjab Province. Amid protest and civil disorder in Sindh Province, following the imposition of Operation Clean-up
Operation Clean-up
The Operation Clean-up was a military operation led by Pakistan Army and the Army Rangers under the command of Brigadier Imtiaz Ahmed in Karachi, Pakistan that lasted from 1992−1994. The claimed goal of the operation was to 'cleanse' the city of "anti-social" elements...
, the IDA government lost the control of the province. The Peoples Party attacked the IDA government's unemployment records, and industrial racism. However, President Ghulam Ishaq Khan dismissal the conservatives government on same charges when Sharif attempted to revert the 8th Amendment but was unsuccessful, therefore he was forced to resign and his government was later dismissed. Nawaz Sharif and Benazir Bhutto united to oust the Conservative President who lost the control of the country in matter of weeks. Khan too was forced to resign with Nawaz Sharif in 1993, and an interim government was formed until the new government. A parliamentary election
Pakistani general election, 1993
General elections were held in Pakistan on 6 October 1993. The election took place after both the Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and President Ghulam Ishaq Khan resigned to resolve a power struggle between them. Although the Pakistan Muslim League won the largest number of votes, the Pakistan Peoples...
was called after the resignation of Nawaz Sharif and Ghulam Ishaq Khan by Pakistan Armed Forces. Both Sharif and Benazir Bhutto compaigned with full force, targetting each other's personalities. Their policies were very similar but saw a clash of personalities with both parties making many promises but not explaining how they were going to pay for them.
Sharif stood on his record of privitisation
Privatization
Privatization is the incidence or process of transferring ownership of a business, enterprise, agency or public service from the public sector to the private sector or to private non-profit organizations...
s and development projects and pledged to restore his taxi
Taxicab
A taxicab, also taxi or cab, is a type of vehicle for hire with a driver, used by a single passenger or small group of passengers, often for a non-shared ride. A taxicab conveys passengers between locations of their choice...
giveaway program. Bhutto promised price support
Price support
In economics, a price support may be either a subsidy or a price control, both with the intended effect of keeping the market price of a good higher than the competitive equilibrium level....
s for agriculture, pledged a partnership between government and business and campaigned strongly for the female vote.
Second term (1993–1996)
Though the Pakistan People's Party won the most seats in the election at 86 but failed to gain a majority with the PML-N second with 73 seats in the Parliament. Benazir Bhutto performed extremely well on her native province, Sindh, and rural Punjab, while the PML-N was strongest in industrial Punjab and the largest cities such as KarachiKarachi
Karachi is the largest city, main seaport and the main financial centre of Pakistan, as well as the capital of the province of Sindh. The city has an estimated population of 13 to 15 million, while the total metropolitan area has a population of over 18 million...
, Lahore
Lahore
Lahore is the capital of the Pakistani province of Punjab and the second largest city in the country. With a rich and fabulous history dating back to over a thousand years ago, Lahore is no doubt Pakistan's cultural capital. One of the most densely populated cities in the world, Lahore remains a...
and Rawalpindi
Rawalpindi
Rawalpindi , locally known as Pindi, is a city in the Pothohar region of Pakistan near Pakistan's capital city of Islamabad, in the province of Punjab. Rawalpindi is the fourth largest city in Pakistan after Karachi, Lahore and Faisalabad...
. On 19 October, 1993, Benazir Bhutto was sworn as 12th Prime minister allowing her to continue her reform initiatives.
Benazir Bhutto learned a valuable experience and lesson from the presidency of Ghulam Ishaq Khan, and the presidential elections were soon called after her re-elect. After carefully examining the candidates, Benazir Bhutto decided to appoint Farooq Leghari
Farooq Leghari
Sardar Farooq Ahmad Khan Leghari was the eighth President of Pakistan from November 14, 1993 until December 2, 1997...
as for her president, in which, Leghari sworned as 8th President of Pakistan on November 14, 1993 as well as first Baloch to have became president since the country's independence. Leghari was an apolitical
Apolitical
The state or quality of being apolitical can be the apathy and/or the antipathy towards all political affiliations. Being apolitical can also refer to situations in which people take an unbiased position in regard to political matters.-References:...
figure who was educated Kingston University London receiving his degree in same discipline as of Benazir Bhutto. But unlike Khan, Leghari had no political background, no experience in government running operations, and had no background understanding the civil-military relations. In contrast, Leghari was a figurehead and puppet president with all of the military leadership directly reporting to Benazir Bhutto.
Domestic affairs
Benazir Bhutto was Prime Minister at a time of great racial tension in Pakistan. Her standing poll rose by 38% after she appeared and said in a private television after the elections: "We are unhappy with the manner in which tampered electoral lists were provided in a majority of constituencies; our voters were turned away." The Conservatives attracted voters from religious society (MMA)Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal
Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal is a coalition of Islamist parties that was formed in 2002 to electorally challenge the Pakistan Parliament's incumbent parties...
whose support had collapsed. The Friday Times
Friday Times
The Friday Times is a Pakistani English-language independent newsweekly, based in Lahore, Pakistan. It was first published on 25 May, 1989.TFT’s editorial policy is independent as demonstrated by the national and international standing of the newspaper...
noted "Both of them (Nawaz and Benazir) have done so badly in the past, it will be very difficult for them to do worse now. If Bhutto's government fails, everyone knows there will be no new elections. The army will take over". In confidential official documents Benazir Bhutto had objected to the number of Urdu speaking class in 1993 elections, in context that she had no Urdu-speaking sentiment in her circle and discrimination was continued even in her government. Her stance on these issues was perceived as part of rising public disclosure which Altaf Hussain
Altaf Hussain
Altaf Hussain is the founder and leader of the Muttahida Quami Movement . The MQM emerged as the third largest political party in the national assembly of Pakistan during 1988 and 1990 elections. The MQM secured representation in the parliamentary elections held in the northern areas of Pakistan...
called "racism". Due to Benazir Bhutto's stubbornness and authoritative actions, her political rivals gave her the nickname "Iron Lady
Iron Lady
Iron Lady is a nickname that has frequently been used to describe female heads of government around the world. The term describes a "strong willed" woman...
" of Pakistan. No response was issued by Bhutto, but she soon associated with the term.
The racial violence in Karachi was reached at peak and became a biggest problem for Benazir Bhutto to counter. The MQM attempted to make an alliance with Benazir Bhutto under her own conditions, but Benazir Bhutto refused. Soon the second operation, Operation Blue Fox was launched to politically vanished the MQM from country's political spectrum. The results of this operation remains inconclusive and resulted in thousands killed or gone missing, with majority contains Urdu-speaking. Benazir Bhutto issued the statement to MQM asking the MQM to surrender to her government unconditionally. Though the operation was halted in 1995, but amid violence continued and, Shahid Javed Burki
Shahid Javed Burki
Shahid Javed Burki is a professional economist who has served as a Vice President of the World Bank and as a caretaker Finance Minister of Pakistan...
, a professor of economics, noted that "Karachi problem was not so much an ethnic problem as it was an economic question. Amid union and labor strikes began to take place in Karachi and Lahore, which were encouraged by both Altaf Hussain and Nawaz Sharif to undermined her authority. Benazir Bhutto responded by disbanding these trade union and issuing orders to arrest the leaders of the trade unions, while on other hand, Benazir Bhutto provide incentives to local workers and laborers as she had separated the workers from their union leaders successfully. Benazir Bhutto expanded the authoritative rights of Police Combatant Force and the provisional governments that tackled the local opposition aggressively. Benazir Bhutto, though her Internal Security Minister Naseerullah Babar
Naseerullah Babar
Major-General Naseerullah Khan Babar , SJ, HJ, was a retired 2-star rank general officer in the Pakistan Army, and later career military officer-turned statesman from the leftist democratic soclialist, the Pakistan Peoples Party...
, intensified the internal security operations and steps gradually putting down the opposition's political rallies, while she did not complete abandoned the reconciliation policy. In her own worlds, Benazir Bhutto announced: "There was no basis for (strikes)... in view of the on going political process...".
In August of 1993, Benazir Bhutto narrowly escaped an assassination attempt near at the local hotel in the early morning. While no one was injured or killed, the culprits of this attempt were went into hiding. In December 1993, disturbing news began to surfaces in Swat valley when Sufi Muhammad
Sufi Muhammad
Sufi Muhammad bin Alhazrat Hassan, born in Dir, is the founder of Tehreek-e-Nafaz-e-Shariat-e-Mohammadi , a Pakistani militant organisation with Wahabi and Deobandi learnings vying for implementation of Sharia in Pakistan. It operates mainly in the Dir, Swat, and Malakand districts of...
, a religious cleric, began to mobilize the local militia calling for overthrow of Un-Islamic rule of [Iron] Lady. Benazir Bhutto responded quickly and ordered the Pakistan Army
Pakistan Army
The Pakistan Army is the branch of the Pakistani Armed Forces responsible for land-based military operations. The Pakistan Army came into existence after the Partition of India and the resulting independence of Pakistan in 1947. It is currently headed by General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani. The Pakistan...
to crackdown the militia, the movement was crushed by the Army and the cleric was apprehended before he could escaped.
However, the corruption grew during her government, and her government became increasingly unpopular amid corruption scandals which became public. One of the most internationally and nationally reported scandal was the Agosta Submarine scandal. Benazir Bhutto's spouse Asif Ali Zardari
Asif Ali Zardari
Asif Ali Zardari is the 11th and current President of Pakistan and the Co-Chairman of the ruling Pakistan Peoples Party . He is also the widower of Benazir Bhutto, who served two nonconsecutive terms as Prime Minister....
was linked with former Admiral Mansurul Haq who allegedely made side deals with French officials and Asif Ali Zardari while acquiring the submarine technology. It was one of the consequences that her government was dismissed and Asif Ali Zardari along with Mansurul Haq were arrested and a trial was set in place. Both Zardari and Haq were detained due to corruption cases and Benazir Bhutto flew to Dubai from Pakistan in 1998.
Women sufferage
During her election campaigns, she promised to repeal controversial laws (such as Hudood and ZinaZina (Arabic)
Zinā or Zināʾ is generally defined by Islamic Law as unlawful sexual intercourse, i.e. intercourse between a man and a woman who are not married to one another or in a state of lawful concubinage based on ownership...
ordinances) that curtail the rights of women in Pakistan. Bhutto was pro-life
Pro-life
Opposition to the legalization of abortion is centered around the pro-life, or anti-abortion, movement, a social and political movement opposing elective abortion on moral grounds and supporting its legal prohibition or restriction...
and spoke forcefully against abortion
Abortion
Abortion is defined as the termination of pregnancy by the removal or expulsion from the uterus of a fetus or embryo prior to viability. An abortion can occur spontaneously, in which case it is usually called a miscarriage, or it can be purposely induced...
, most notably at the International Conference on Population and Development
International Conference on Population and Development
The United Nations coordinated an International Conference on Population and Development in Cairo, Egypt from 5–13 September 1994. Its resulting Program of Action is the steering document for the United Nations Population Fund ....
in Cairo, where she accused the West of "seeking to impose adultery, abortion, intercourse education and other such matters on individuals, societies and religions which have their own social ethos." However, Bhutto was not supported by the leading women organizations, who argued that after being elected twice, none of the reforms were made, instead controversial laws were exercised more toughly. Therefore, in 1997 elections, Bhutto failed to secure any support from women's organizations and minorities also gave Bhotto the cold-shoulder when she approached them. It was not until 2006 that the Zina ordinance was finally repealed by a Presidential Ordinance issued by Pervez Musharraf
Pervez Musharraf
Pervez Musharraf , is a retired four-star general who served as the 13th Chief of Army Staff and tenth President of Pakistan as well as tenth Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee. Musharraf headed and led an administrative military government from October 1999 till August 2007. He ruled...
in July 2006.
Bhutto was an active and founding member of the Council of Women World Leaders
Council of Women World Leaders
The Council of Women World Leaders is a network of current and former women prime ministers and presidents established in 1996 by Vigdís Finnbogadóttir, President of Iceland and first woman in the world to be democratically elected president, and Laura Liswood, Secretary General...
, a network of current and former prime ministers and presidents.
Economic issues
As an academic profession, Benazir was an economist, therefore during her terms, Benazir Bhutto had no Minister to lead the Ministry of Treasury. Benazir Bhutto herself appointed as Treasure MinisterFinance Minister of Pakistan
The Finance Minister of Pakistan heads the Ministry of Finance and serves in the Prime Minister's cabinet. The Minister is required to be a member of the Parliament.The current finance minister is Abdul Hafeez Shaikh...
, taking the charge of economic and financial affairs on her hand. Benazir sought to improve the country's economy which was declining as the time was passing. Benazir disagreed with her father's nationalization and socialist economics
Socialist economics
Socialist economics are the economic theories and practices of hypothetical and existing socialist economic systems.A socialist economy is based on public ownership or independent cooperative ownership of the means of production, wherein production is carried out to directly produce use-value,...
. Soon after the collapse of Soviet Union
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
, Benazir attempted to privatized major industries that were nationalized in 1970s. However, Benazir and Ghulam Ishaq Khan soon suffered a currency crises when the government failed to arrest the 30% fall in the value of the Pakistan Rupee
Pakistani rupee
The rupee is the currency of Pakistan. The issuance of the currency is controlled by the State Bank of Pakistan, the central bank of the country. The most commonly used symbol for the rupee is Rs, used on receipts when purchasing goods and services. In Pakistan, the rupee is referred to as the...
from Rs. 21 to Rs. 30 to currency compare and contrast to US$
United States dollar
The United States dollar , also referred to as the American dollar, is the official currency of the United States of America. It is divided into 100 smaller units called cents or pennies....
. Soon economic progress became her top priority but her investment and industrialization programs faced major setbacks due to conceptions formed by investors based upon her People's Party nationalization program in 1970s. By the 1990s, Khan and Benazir Bhutto's government had also ultimately lost the currency war
Currency war
Currency war, also known as competitive devaluation, is a condition in international affairs where countries compete against each other to achieve a relatively low exchange rate for their own currency. As the price to buy a particular currency falls, so to does the real price of exports from the...
with the Indian currency
Indian rupee
The Indian rupee is the official currency of the Republic of India. The issuance of the currency is controlled by the Reserve Bank of India....
and Indian Rupee beat the value of Pakistan rupee for the first time in 1970s. Benazir Bhutto's denationalization program also suffered from many political setbacks, as many of her government members were either directly or indirectly involved with the government corruption in major government-owned industries
Government-owned corporation
A government-owned corporation, state-owned company, state-owned entity, state enterprise, publicly owned corporation, government business enterprise, or parastatal is a legal entity created by a government to undertake commercial activities on behalf of an owner government...
, and her appointed government members allegedly sabotaged her efforts to privatized the industries.
Overall, the living standard for people in Pakistan declined as inflation
Inflation
In economics, inflation is a rise in the general level of prices of goods and services in an economy over a period of time.When the general price level rises, each unit of currency buys fewer goods and services. Consequently, inflation also reflects an erosion in the purchasing power of money – a...
and unemployment
Unemployment
Unemployment , as defined by the International Labour Organization, occurs when people are without jobs and they have actively sought work within the past four weeks...
grew at an exponential rate. During her first and second term, the difference between rich and poor visibly increased and the middle class in particular were the ones who suffered from the major economic inequality. According to a calculation completed by the Federal Bureau of Statistics
Federal Bureau of Statistics
The Federal Bureau of Statistics, also known as FBS is a Government of Pakistan's major and executive and federal department charged with the national statistical services and to provide solid and comprehensive statistical research. The FBS is one of the departments of the Statistics Division of...
, the rich were statistically were improved
The rich get richer (statistics)
In probability and statistics, the phrase "the rich get richer" is used to describe the self-reinforcing behavior of certain probability distributions and stochastic processes, such as the Dirichlet process and Chinese restaurant process...
and the poor were declined
The rich get richer and the poor get poorer
"The rich get richer and the poor get poorer" is a catchphrase and proverb, frequently used in discussing economic inequality...
in terms of living standards. Benazir attributed this economic inequality
Economic inequality
Economic inequality comprises all disparities in the distribution of economic assets and income. The term typically refers to inequality among individuals and groups within a society, but can also refer to inequality among countries. The issue of economic inequality is related to the ideas of...
to be a result of ongoing and continuous illegal Bengali immigration
Bangladeshis in Pakistan
The population of Bengalis and Bangladeshis in Pakistan is said to be in millions however there is no exact figure. Different sources dub as much as between 1 - 3 million immigrants in Karachi with Bengali origin...
. Benazir Bhutto ordered a crackdown on and deportation of illegal Bangladeshi immigrants. Her action strained and created tensions in Bangladesh–Pakistan relations, with Khaleda Zia
Khaleda Zia
Begum Khaleda Zia is the former First Lady of Bangladesh , and then Prime Minister of Bangladesh, having served from 1991 to 1996, becoming the first woman in the country's history and second in the Muslim world to head a democratic government as prime minister. She served again from 2001 until...
, who was in power in Dhaka during the time. He refused to accept the deportees and reportedly sent two planeloads back to Pakistan. Religious parties also criticized Bhutto and dubbed the crackdown as anti-Islamic.
This operation backlashed and had devastating effects on Pakistan's economy. Ghulam Ishaq Khan who saw this as a major economic failure despite Khan's permission was required by Benazir Bhutto for the approval of her economic policies. Khan blamed Benazir for this extensive economic slowdown and her policy that failed to stop the illegal immigration. Khan attributed Benazir Bhutto's government members corruption in government-owned industries as the major sink hole in Pakistan's economy that failed to compete with neighboring India's economy.
Privatization
During her second term, Benazir Bhutto continued to follow former Prime minister Nawaz Sharif's Privatization
Privatization
Privatization is the incidence or process of transferring ownership of a business, enterprise, agency or public service from the public sector to the private sector or to private non-profit organizations...
policies, which she called "disciplined macroeconomics policy". After the 1993 elections the sale of state-owned banks and utilities accelerated; more than Rs
Pakistani rupee
The rupee is the currency of Pakistan. The issuance of the currency is controlled by the State Bank of Pakistan, the central bank of the country. The most commonly used symbol for the rupee is Rs, used on receipts when purchasing goods and services. In Pakistan, the rupee is referred to as the...
.42 billion was raised from the sale of nationalized corporations and industries , and another $20 billion from the foreign investment made the United States. The process of privatization of the nationalized industries was associated with the marked performance and improvement, especially the terms of labor productivity
Labor productivity
Workforce productivity is the amount of goods and services that a worker produces in a given amount of time. It is one of several types of productivity that economists measure. Workforce productivity can be measured for a firm, a process, an industry, or a country...
. A number of privatization of industries such as gas, water, and electricity, were natural monopolies
Natural monopoly
A monopoly describes a situation where all sales in a market are undertaken by a single firm. A natural monopoly by contrast is a condition on the cost-technology of an industry whereby it is most efficient for production to be concentrated in a single form...
for which the privatization involved little competition.. However, the privatized money was avoided not spent on people's living standard, and it was in 1997, when it was founded that the amount gained in privatization had gone somewhere else and it was no where to be found in government's account.
Furthermore, Benazir denied the privatization of the Pakistan Railways
Pakistan Railways
This article is about the rail company in Pakistan. For technical details and operations see: Transport in Pakistan.Pakistan Railways is a national state-owned rail transport service of Pakistan, head-quartered in Lahore. It is administered by the federal government under the Ministry of Railways....
despite the calls were made in Pakistan, and was said to have told to Chairman of the Planning Commission
Planning Commission (Pakistan)
The Planning Commission of Pakistan, commonly known as Planning Commission, is a Pakistan Government's executive and federal departmental institution in charge of managing the economy of the country in tandem with the Ministry of Finance. Its main function is to prepare five-year plans of economic...
Naveed Qamar, "Railways privatization will be the "blackhole" of this government. Please never mention the railways to me again". Benazir Bhutto always resisted to privatized the UBL, but UBL management send the recommendation for the privatization which dismayed the labor union. The United Group of Employees Management (UGEM) asked the Madame Prime minister for issue of regulation sheet which she denied. The holding of UBL in government control turned out to be a move that ended in "disaster" for Benazir Bhutto's government.
Foreign policy
Benazir Bhutto's foreign policy were controversial and difficult for experts to describe in words. As for her second term, Benazir Bhutto expanded Pakistan's relations with the rest of the world. As before like her fatherZulfikar Ali Bhutto
Zulfikar Ali Bhutto was 9th Prime Minister of Pakistan from 1973 to 1977, and prior to that, 4th President of Pakistan from 1971 to 1973. Bhutto was the founder of the Pakistan Peoples Party — the largest and most influential political party in Pakistan— and served as its chairman until his...
, Benazir Bhutto sought to strengthen the relations with socialist states, and Benazir Bhutto first visit Libya
Libya
Libya is an African country in the Maghreb region of North Africa bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to the north, Egypt to the east, Sudan to the southeast, Chad and Niger to the south, and Algeria and Tunisia to the west....
to strengthened the relations
Libya–Pakistan relations
Libya-Pakistan relations refers to the bilateral and diplomatic relations between Libya and Pakistan. The relationship has been friendly throughout its history. Both countries share religious and cultural links, particularly their Islamic heritage....
with then-Socialist Peoples Republic of Libya. Benazir also thanked Muammar al-Gaddafi
Muammar al-Gaddafi
Muammar Muhammad Abu Minyar Gaddafi or "September 1942" 20 October 2011), commonly known as Muammar Gaddafi or Colonel Gaddafi, was the official ruler of the Libyan Arab Republic from 1969 to 1977 and then the "Brother Leader" of the Libyan Arab Jamahiriya from 1977 to 2011.He seized power in a...
for his tremendous efforts and support for her father during the 1977. Ties continued with Libya but deteriorated after Nawaz Sharif became Prime minister in 1990 and again in 1997. In Pakistan, Qaddafi was said to be very fond of Benazir Bhutto and was a family friend of Bhutto family
Bhutto family
The Bhutto family is a political family in Pakistan. Bhutto is a Rajput tribe settled in Sindh.-List of family members:* Pir Bakhsh Bhutto* * Khuda Bakhsh Bhutto, Ameer Bakhsh Bhutto, Illahi Bux Bhutto...
, but disliked Nawaz Sharif due to his ties with General Zia in the 1980s. Benazir Bhutto is said to have paid a state visit to North Korea
North Korea
The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea , , is a country in East Asia, occupying the northern half of the Korean Peninsula. Its capital and largest city is Pyongyang. The Korean Demilitarized Zone serves as the buffer zone between North Korea and South Korea...
in early 1990 and in 1996, and according to journalist Shyam Bhatia, Bhutto smuggled CDs
Compact Disc
The Compact Disc is an optical disc used to store digital data. It was originally developed to store and playback sound recordings exclusively, but later expanded to encompass data storage , write-once audio and data storage , rewritable media , Video Compact Discs , Super Video Compact Discs ,...
containing uranium enrichment data to North Korea
North Korea
The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea , , is a country in East Asia, occupying the northern half of the Korean Peninsula. Its capital and largest city is Pyongyang. The Korean Demilitarized Zone serves as the buffer zone between North Korea and South Korea...
on a state visit that same year in return for data on missile technology. According to the expert, Benazir Bhutto acted as female "James Bond
James Bond
James Bond, code name 007, is a fictional character created in 1953 by writer Ian Fleming, who featured him in twelve novels and two short story collections. There have been a six other authors who wrote authorised Bond novels or novelizations after Fleming's death in 1964: Kingsley Amis,...
", and left with a bag of computer disks to pass on to her military to North Korea.
Major-General Pervez Musharraf closely worked with Benazir Bhutto and her government in formulating the foreign strategy with Israel. In 1993, during Benazir Bhutto's state visit to the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, Major-General Pervez Musharraf who was tenuring as the Director-General of the Pakistan Army's Directorate-General for the Military Operation (DGMO), was ordered by Bhutto to join this state visit. As unusual and unconventional it was for the Director of the Directorate-General for Military Operations (DGMO) to join this trip, Benazir Bhutto and her DGMO had chaired a secret meeting with Israeli
Israel
The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...
officials in New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
in 1993 who especially flew to Washington. Under her guidance, General Musharraf had intensified the ISI's liaison with Israel's Mossad
Mossad
The Mossad , short for HaMossad leModi'in uleTafkidim Meyuchadim , is the national intelligence agency of Israel....
. A final meeting was took place in 1995, and General Musharraf had also joined this meeting with Benazir Bhutto after she ordered General Musharraf to fly to New York immediately. Benazir Bhutto also strengthened relations
Pakistan–Vietnam relations
Pakistan and Vietnam relationship are largely based on mutual trade and international political cooperation opportunities between the 2 countries. Pakistan maintains an embassy in Hanoi, and Vietnam has an embassy in Islamabad....
with communist state Vietnam
Vietnam
Vietnam – sometimes spelled Viet Nam , officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam – is the easternmost country on the Indochina Peninsula in Southeast Asia. It is bordered by China to the north, Laos to the northwest, Cambodia to the southwest, and the South China Sea –...
and visited Vietnam to sign the mutual trade and international political cooperation between both countries. In 1995, Benazir Bhutto paid a state visit to United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
where she held talks with U.S. President Bill Clinton
Bill Clinton
William Jefferson "Bill" Clinton is an American politician who served as the 42nd President of the United States from 1993 to 2001. Inaugurated at age 46, he was the third-youngest president. He took office at the end of the Cold War, and was the first president of the baby boomer generation...
. During the visit, Benazir Bhutto urged the United States to amend the Pressler Amendment and emphasized United States to launch a campaign against the extremism. Though, the Prime Minister criticized U.S.'s nonproliferation policy and demanded that the United States honour its contractual obligation.
During her second term, the relationship with P. V. Narasimha Rao
P. V. Narasimha Rao
Pamulaparti Venkata "Narasimha Rao" was the ninth Prime Minister of India . He led an important administration, overseeing a major economic transformation and several home incidents affecting national security of India. Rao accelerated the dismantling of the Licence Raj. He is often referred to as...
of India further deteriorated. As like her father, Benazir Bhutto used the rhetoric opposition to India, campaigning international community against the Indian nuclear programme. On May 1st, 1995, Benazir Bhutto used harsh language and publicly warned India for her "continuation of [Indian] nuclear programme would have terrible consequences". India responded to this statement as interfering in India's "internal matter", and the Indian Army fired a RPG near at the Kahuta
Kahuta
Kahuta is a town and tehsil in the Rawalpindi District of Pakistan's Punjab Province. According to Pakistan's 2008 census, Kahuta tehsil has a population of approximately 160,000....
which further escalating the events leading into the full-fledged war. When the news reached to Benazir Bhutto, she responded by high-alerting the Air Force Strategic Command
Air Force Strategic Command (Pakistan)
The Pakistan Air Force Strategic Forces Command, known as AF Strategic Command, is one of the three unified command of the Pakistan Strategic Forces Command...
which, heavily armed Arrows, Griffins, Black Panthers
No. 26 Squadron (Pakistan Air Force)
No. 26 Squadron, named the Black Spiders, is a Pakistan Air Force fighter squadron.-History:The squadron was established at PAF Base Masroor on 30 August 1967, equipped with the F-86 Sabre, commanded by Wing Commander Rehmat Khan and assigned the role of operational training of pilots on the F-86....
and the Black Spiders
No. 26 Squadron (Pakistan Air Force)
No. 26 Squadron, named the Black Spiders, is a Pakistan Air Force fighter squadron.-History:The squadron was established at PAF Base Masroor on 30 August 1967, equipped with the F-86 Sabre, commanded by Wing Commander Rehmat Khan and assigned the role of operational training of pilots on the F-86....
(all of these squadrons are part of the Strategic Command) began to take the air sorties and patrol the Indo-Pakistan border on day and night regular missions. On May 30, India test fired the Prithvi-1 missile near the Pakistan border, which was condemned by Benazir Bhutto. Following this test, Benazir responded by deploying Shaheen-I
Shaheen-I
The Shaheen missile series, named after a species of falcon found in the mountains of Pakistan, was developed by NESCOM's National Defence Complex of Pakistan...
missile, however these missiles were not put on missile mode. Benazir Bhutto permitted PAF
Pakistan Air Force
The Pakistan Air Force is the leading air arm of the Pakistan Armed Forces and is primarily tasked with the aerial defence of Pakistan with a secondary role of providing air support to the Pakistan Army and the Pakistan Navy. The PAF also has a tertiary role of providing strategic air transport...
to deploy Crotale missile defence and the Anza-Mk-III
Anza (missile)
Anza is a series of shoulder-fired, man-portable surface-to-air missiles produced by Pakistan. Guided by an infra-red homing seeker, Anza is used for low level air defence....
near at the Indian border which escalated the conflict, but it had produced effective results that kept the Indian Army
Indian Army
The Indian Army is the land based branch and the largest component of the Indian Armed Forces. With about 1,100,000 soldiers in active service and about 1,150,000 reserve troops, the Indian Army is the world's largest standing volunteer army...
and the Indian Air Force
Indian Air Force
The Indian Air Force is the air arm of the Indian armed forces. Its primary responsibility is to secure Indian airspace and to conduct aerial warfare during a conflict...
to launch any surprise attack. In 1994, she bought the Agosta submarines and the AIP
Air-independent propulsion
Air-independent propulsion is a term that encompasses technologies which allow a submarine to operate without the need to surface or use a snorkel to access atmospheric oxygen. The term usually excludes the use of nuclear power, and describes augmenting or replacing the diesel-electric propulsion...
technology from France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
to replace the aging Daphné-class
Daphne class submarine
The Daphné class was a type of diesel-electric patrol submarines built in France between 1958 and 1970 for the French Navy and for export.-History:...
submarines for the Pakistan Navy
Pakistan Navy
The Pakistan Navy is the naval warfare/service branch of the Pakistan Armed Forces. Pakistan's Navy is responsible for Pakistan's coastline along the Arabian Sea and the defense of important civilian harbors and military bases...
. It was a highly controversial agreement, but it had tripled the Pakistan's naval capabilities that later posed a substantial threat to Indian Navy
Indian Navy
The Indian Navy is the naval branch of the armed forces of India. The President of India serves as the Commander-in-Chief of the Navy. The Chief of Naval Staff , usually a four-star officer in the rank of Admiral, commands the Navy...
to launch a naval adventure against Pakistan. Benazir Bhutto later deployed the Pakistan Navy
Pakistan Navy
The Pakistan Navy is the naval warfare/service branch of the Pakistan Armed Forces. Pakistan's Navy is responsible for Pakistan's coastline along the Arabian Sea and the defense of important civilian harbors and military bases...
's Mu-90
MU90 Impact
The MU90/IMPACT is an advanced lightweight anti-submarine torpedo used by navies of Germany, France, Italy, Denmark, Australia and Poland. It is designed to compete with and outperform the US-built Mark 46 in the anti-submarine role, and is also available in a special MU90 Hard Kill version for...
torpedo, and authorized an submarine operation to patrol the vicinity of Pakistan naval borders in order to keep Indian Navy away from the economical ports.
In 1995, the ISI reported to the Madame Prime minister that P.V. Narasimha Rao, Indian Premier
Prime Minister of India
The Prime Minister of India , as addressed to in the Constitution of India — Prime Minister for the Union, is the chief of government, head of the Council of Ministers and the leader of the majority party in parliament...
had given an authorization for nuclear tests, and the tests could be conducted any minute. Benazir responded by putting the country's nuclear arsenal programme on high-alert ; emergency preparations were made by the government, and Benazir Bhutto ordered the Pakistan Armed Forces to stay on high-alert. However, after the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
interfered, the Indian' operations for conducting the nuclear tests were called off and the Japan tried to provide mediation between both countries. However, in 1996, Benazir Bhutto met with the Japanese officials where she warned India about conducting the nuclear tests, and in the first time, Benazir Bhutto revealed that Pakistan has achieved "parity" with India in its "capacity" to produce nuclear weapons and their "delivery capability." While talking to Indian press, Benazir Bhutto said that Pakistan "cannot afford to negate the parity we maintain with India" in the nuclear area. Benazir Bhutto's statements represent a departure from Pakistan's previous policy of "nuclear ambivalence. Soon after learning this news, Prime minister Benazir Bhutto issued a statement concerning the tests in which she reportedly told the international press and condemned Indian nuclear tests, as she puts it:
Benazir Bhutto also intensified her policy on Indian-held Kashmir working rallying against India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
. Benazir Bhutto, accompanied by her then-Speaker of the National Assembly Yousaf Raza Gillani
Yousaf Raza Gillani
Yousuf Raza Gilani is the current prime minister of Islamic Republic of Pakistan. He was nominated as Prime Minister by the PPP, with the support of its coalition partners, Pakistan Muslim League , Awami National Party, Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam and Muttahida Qaumi Movement, on 22 March 2008...
(now Prime minister) at the Inter-Parliamentary Union meeting at the United Nations, gave a vehement and intensified criticism to India which frustrated, upsat and angered the Indian delegation headed by Prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee
Atal Bihari Vajpayee
Atal Bihari Vajpayee is an Indian statesman who served as the tenth Prime Minister of India three times – first for a brief term of 13 days in 1996, and then for two terms from 1998 to 2004. After his first brief period as Prime Minister in 1996, Vajpayee headed a coalition government from...
. Vajpayee responded by saying: It is Pakistan which is flouting the United Nations resolution by not withdrawing its forces from Kashmir...You people create problem every time. You know the Kashmiri people themselves acceded to India. First, the Maharaja then the Kashmiri parliament both decided to go with India".
In 1996, Benazir Bhutto attacked the Indian nuclear programme and warned India for "tragic consequences". Benazir Bhutto criticized Indian held-Kashmir and described it as the worst example of Indian intransigence. Benazir also countered Indian allegation for Pakistan's putative nuclear test as "baseless allegation". Benazir Bhutto criticized India as a bid to hide its plan to explode a nuclear device, and failure to cover up its domestic problems including its failure in suppressing the freedom struggle in Kashmir.
Relations with military
During her first term, Benazir Bhutto had strained relationship with the Pakistan Armed Forces, especially with Pakistan ArmyPakistan Army
The Pakistan Army is the branch of the Pakistani Armed Forces responsible for land-based military operations. The Pakistan Army came into existence after the Partition of India and the resulting independence of Pakistan in 1947. It is currently headed by General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani. The Pakistan...
. Chief of Army Staff General Mirza Aslam Beg had cold relations with the elected prime minister, and continued to undermine her authority. As for the military appointments, Benazir Bhutto refused to appoint General Beg as the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee, instead invited Admiral Iftikhar Ahmed Sirohey
Iftikhar Ahmed Sirohey
Admiral Iftikhar Ahmed Sirohey, NI, SBt, HI, , is a now-retired and senior four-star admiral who was the 10th Chief of Naval Staff of Pakistan Navy from 1986 to 1988...
to take the chairmanship of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. In 1988, Benazir Bhutto appointed General Hakimullah
Hakimullah
Air Chief Marshal Hakimullah, NI, SJ, SBt, was the Chief of Air Staff of Pakistan Air Force from 9 March 1988 to 8 March 1991....
as the Chief of Air Staff
Chief of Air Staff (Pakistan)
The Chief of the Air Staff of the Pakistan Air Force, abbreviated as CAS, is typically the highest ranking 4-star rank officer in the Pakistan Air Force, unless a four-star officer is appointed as the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee. The CAS is a senior and permanent member of the...
and Admiral Jastural Haq
Yastur-ul-Haq Malik
Admiral Yastur-ul-Haq Malik, NI, SBt, is a retired 4-Star naval officer and 11th Chief of Naval Staff of Pakistan Navy from 10 November 1988 to 8 November 1991. He is a recipient of Nishan-i-Imtiaz , which is awarded to all the services chiefs upon taking over their respective commands and...
as the Chief of Naval Staff
Chief of Naval Staff (Pakistan)
The Chief of the Naval Staff, abbreviated as CNS, is the highest ranking officer in the Pakistani Navy unless a 4-star naval officer is appointed as Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee. The current Chief of the Naval Staff is Admiral Asif Sandila who commands the Navy. The CNS reports...
. In 1988, shortly after assuming the office, Benazir Bhutto paid a visit to Siachen region, to boost the moral of the soldiers who fought the Siachen war
Siachen conflict
The Siachen Conflict, sometimes referred to as the Siachen War, is a military conflict between India and Pakistan over the disputed Siachen Glacier region in Kashmir. The conflict began in 1984 with India's successful Operation Meghdoot during which it wrested control of the Siachen Glacier from...
with India. This was the first visit of any civilian leader to any military war-zone area since the country's independence in 1947. In 1988, Benazir appointed Major-General Pervez Musharraf
Pervez Musharraf
Pervez Musharraf , is a retired four-star general who served as the 13th Chief of Army Staff and tenth President of Pakistan as well as tenth Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee. Musharraf headed and led an administrative military government from October 1999 till August 2007. He ruled...
as Director-general of the Army Directorate General for Military Operations (DGMO); and then-Brigadier-General Ishfaq Pervez Kayani as her Military-Secretary. In 1989, the Pakistan Army exposed the alleged Operation Midnight Jackal
Operation Midnight Jackal
Operation Midnight Jackal was a political scandal in Pakistan in 1989 which members of the ISI were exposed in a sting operation as wanting to overthrow the government of Benazir Bhutto. Former ISI operative Brigadier Imtiaz Ahmed Billa is regarded as the mastermind of the plot...
against the government of Benazir Bhutto. When she learned the news, Benazir Bhutto ordered the arrest and trial of former ISI officer Brigadier Imtiaz Ahmad and Major Amir Khan, it was late revealed that it was General Beg who was behind this plot. General Beg soon paid the price in 1993 elections, when Benazir Bhutto politically destroyed the former general and his career was over before taking any shifts in politics.
During her second term, Benazir Bhutto's relations with the Pakistan Armed Forces took a different and pro-Benazir approach, when she carefully appointed General Abdul Waheed as the Chief of Army Staff. General Abdul Waheed was an uptight, strict, and a professional officer with a views of Westernized democracy. Benazir also appointed Admiral
Admiral
Admiral is the rank, or part of the name of the ranks, of the highest naval officers. It is usually considered a full admiral and above vice admiral and below admiral of the fleet . It is usually abbreviated to "Adm" or "ADM"...
Saeed Mohammad Khan
Saeed Mohammad Khan
Admiral Saeed Mohammad Khan, NI, SBt, is now-retired 4-star rank naval officer and the 12 Chief of Naval Staff of the Pakistan Navy from 9 November 1991 9 November 1994.-Naval career:...
as Chief of Naval Staff; General Abbas Khattak
Abbas Khattak
Air Chief Marshal Abbas Khattak, NI, SBt, , is a retired four-star general and air-force officer in the Pakistan Air Force who served as the 14th Chief of Air Staff of the Pakistan Air Force from 8 November 1994 to 7 November 1997...
as Chief of Air Staff. Whilst, General Farooq Feroze Khan
Farooq Feroze Khan
Air Chief Marshal Farooq Feroze Khan, NI, SBt, , is a retired four-star air force officer in the Pakistan Air Force who was the 13th Chief of Air Staff of the Pakistan Air Force from 1991 to 1994. Air Chief Marshal Farooq Feroze Khan was the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee from...
was appointed Chairman Joint Chiefs who was the first (thus date, only) Pakistan Air Force general to have reached to such 4 star assignment. Benazir Bhutto enjoyed a strong relations with the Pakistan Armed Forces, and President who was hand-picked by her did not questioned her authority. She hand-picked officers and promoted them based on their pro-democracy views while the puppet President gave constitutional authorization for their promotion.
After the assassination was attempted, Benazir Bhutto's civilian security unit was disbanded and Army took control of the security of Benazir Bhutto. Benazir Bhutto ordered General Abdul Waheed Kakar and the Lieutenant-General Javed Ashraf Qazi
Javed Ashraf Qazi
Lieutenant General Javed Ashraf Qazi, HI, SBt, is a Pakistani general and politician who is currently a Senator in the Parliament of Pakistan. During his army career, Qazi headed the Inter-Services Intelligence from 1993 to 1995 and Military Intelligence from 1990 to 1991...
director-general of ISI, to start a sting and manhunt operation to hunt down the ringmaster, Ramzi Yousef
Ramzi Yousef
Ramzi Yousef was one of the main perpetrators of the 1993 World Trade Center bombing and a co-conspirator in the Bojinka plot. In 1995, he was arrested at a guest house in Islamabad, by the Pakistani Inter-Services Intelligence and United States Diplomatic Security Service, then extradited to the...
. After few arrests and intensive manhunt search, the ISI finally captured Ramzi before he could flew the country. In matter of weeks, Ramzi was secretly extradited to the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, while the ISI manage to kill or apprehend all the culprits behind the assignation plot. In 1995, she personally appointed General Naseem Rana
Naseem Rana
Lieutenant-General Naseem Rana is a retired three-star general in the Pakistan Army, who in the course of Pakistan war in Afghanistan, played a pivotal role in leading the ISI in promoting Pakistani Interest during the Afghanistan Civil War to provide help to irregular hardline Taliban forces...
as the Director-General of the ISI, who later commanded the Pakistan Army's assets in which came to known as "Pakistan's secret war in Afghanistan. During this course, General Rana directly reported to Madame Prime minister, and led the intelligence operations after which were approved by Benazir Bhutto. In 1995, Benazir also appointed Admiral Mansurul Haq as the Chief of Naval Staff, as the Admiral had personal contacts with the Benazir's family. However, it was the Admiral's large scale corruption, sponsored by her husband Asif Zardari, that shrinked the credibility of Benazir Bhutto by the end of 1996 that led to end her government after all.
Policy on Taliban
The Taliban took power in KabulKabul
Kabul , spelt Caubul in some classic literatures, is the capital and largest city of Afghanistan. It is also the capital of the Kabul Province, located in the eastern section of Afghanistan...
in September 1996. It was during Bhutto's rule that the Taliban gained prominence in Afghanistan
Afghanistan
Afghanistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, is a landlocked country located in the centre of Asia, forming South Asia, Central Asia and the Middle East. With a population of about 29 million, it has an area of , making it the 42nd most populous and 41st largest nation in the world...
. She, like many at the time, including the United States government, viewed the Taliban as a group that could stabilize Afghanistan and enable trade access to the Central Asian republics, according to author Stephen Coll. He claims that her government provided military and financial support for the Taliban, even sending a small unit of the Pakistani army into Afghanistan. During her regime, Bhutto's government had controversially supported the hardline Taliban, and many of her government officials were providing financial assistance to the Taliban.
However 2007, she took an anti-Taliban stance, and condemned terrorist acts allegedly committed by the Taliban and their supporters.
Coup d'état attempt
In 1995, Benazir Bhutto's government survived an attempted coup d'état1995 Pakistani coup d'état attempt
The Pakistan coup attempt of 1995 was a secretive plot hatched by renegade military officers and against the government of Benazir Bhutto, the Prime Minister of Pakistan. The plotters aimed to overthrow the constitutional government and establish an Military Rule in Pakistan...
hatched by renegade military officers of the Pakistan Army. The culprit and ring leader of the coup was a junior level officer, Major-General Zahirul Islam Abbasi
Zahirul Islam Abbasi
Major General Zahirul Islam Abbasi , was a former commander and officer of the Pakistani Army and the Inter-Services Intelligence agency of the Pakistani Armed Forces. Serving in the Siachen region of the disputed territory of Kashmir, Abbasi planned and executed assaults on posts occupied by the...
who had radical views. Others included Brigadier-Generals Mustansir Billa, and Qari Saifullah of Pakistan Army. The secret ISI learned this plot and tipped off the Pakistan Army and at midnight before the coup could take place, it was thwarted. This coup was exposed by Lieutenant-General (retired) Ali Kuli Khan
Ali Kuli Khan
Lieutenant General Ali Kuli Khan Khattak, is senior retired three-star general and military strategist who was a former Chief of General Staff , Commander X Corps and Director General Military Intelligence of the Pakistan Army who was superseded when the then Lieutenant General Pervez Musharraf...
, at that time he was Major-General and headed the Military Intelligence
Military Intelligence of Pakistan
In Pakistan Defence Forces, the Directorate-General for the Military Intelligence , is a Pakistan Defence Forces intelligence agency and that is responsible for the military counter-intelligence. It also refers specifically to the intelligence components of the Pakistan Armed Forces. Unlike the...
, and Lieutenant-General (retired) Jehangir Karamat
Jehangir Karamat
General Jehangir Karamat, NI, TBt, afwc, psc, fsc, is a retired four-star general and a renowned military scientist who served as the former Chief of Army Staff of Pakistan Army from January 1996 to October 1998, and then former Pakistan Ambassador to the United States from November 2004 to June...
, Chief of General Staff
Chief of General Staff (Pakistan)
Chief of General Staff, shortly abbreviated as CGS, is the most coveted position within the Pakistan Army. Although four-star Chief of Army Staff is the nominal head of the land forces, CGS is the operational and intelligence lead of the institution...
. The Military Intelligence led the arrest of 36 army officers and 20 civilians in Rawalpindi; General Ali Kuli Khan reported to Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto early morning and and submitted his report on the coup. After learning this, Benazir was angered and dismayed, therefore a full fledged running court martial was formed by Benazir Bhutto. Prime Minister Benazir issued arrests of numbers of religiously conservatives leaders and therefore denied the amnesty and clemency calls made by the Army officers. By the 1996, all of the dissidents officers were either jailed or shot dead by the Pakistan Army and a report was submitted to the Prime minister. As in return, General Kuli Khan and General Karamat received wide appreciation from the Prime minister and were decorated with the civilian decorations and award by her.
Death of younger brother
In 1996, Bhutto family suffered another tragedy in Sindh Province, Benazir Bhutto's stronghold and political lair. Murtaza BhuttoMurtaza Bhutto
Dr. Mir Ghulam Murtaza Bhutto was a Pakistani politician and the Member of the Parliament of Pakistan, representing Pakistan People's Party from the Larkana constituency...
, Benazir Bhutto's younger brother, was controversially and publicly shot down in a controversial police encounter in Karachi. Since 1989, Murtaza and Benazir had a series of disagreement on formulating the Pakistan Peoples Party's policies and Murtaza's opposition towards Benazir's operations
Operation Clean-up
The Operation Clean-up was a military operation led by Pakistan Army and the Army Rangers under the command of Brigadier Imtiaz Ahmed in Karachi, Pakistan that lasted from 1992−1994. The claimed goal of the operation was to 'cleanse' the city of "anti-social" elements...
against the Urdu-speaking class. Murtaza also developed serious disagreement with Benazir's spouse Asif Ali Zardari
Asif Ali Zardari
Asif Ali Zardari is the 11th and current President of Pakistan and the Co-Chairman of the ruling Pakistan Peoples Party . He is also the widower of Benazir Bhutto, who served two nonconsecutive terms as Prime Minister....
, and unsuccessfully attempted to remove his influence in the government. Benazir and Murtaza's mother, Nusrat Bhutto
Nusrat Bhutto
Begum Nusrat Bhutto was an Iranian-Pakistani who was the wife of the 9th Prime Minister of Pakistan Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, serving as the First Lady of Pakistan during his premiership from 1971 until Bhutto's removal in 1977. She became her husband's successor as the chairman of the Pakistan Peoples...
sided with Murtaza which also dismay the daughter. In an controversial interview, Benazir declared that Pakistan only need one Bhutto, not two, though she denied of giving or passing any comments. Her younger brother increasingly made her difficult to run the government after her younger brother rose voices against Benazir's alleged corruption. Alone in Sindh, Benazir lost the support of the province as compared to her younger brother. At the political campaign, Murtaza demanded the party elections inside the Pakistan Peoples Party
Pakistan Peoples Party
The Pakistan Peoples Party , is a democratic socialist political party in Pakistan affiliated with Socialist International. Pakistan People's Party is the largest political party of Pakistan...
, which according to Zardari, Benazir would have lost due to Nusrat was backing Murtaza and inside the party, many workers were willing to see Murtaza as country's Prime minister as well as the Chair of the party. More problems arisen when Abdullah Shah Lakiyari, Chief Minister
Chief Minister of Sindh
The Chief Minister of Sindh is elected by the Provincial Assembly of Sindh to serve as the head of the provincial government in Sindh, Pakistan. The current Chief Minister is Qaim Ali Shah, who belongs to Pakistan Peoples Party...
of Sindh, and allegedly her spouse created a disturbances in Murtaza's political campaign. On 20th September, 1996, in a controversial police encounter, Murtaza Bhutto was shot dead along with six other party activists, near his residence. As the news reached to entire Pakistan, Benazir Bhutto hurriedly return to Karachi and an emergency was proclaimed in the entire province. Benazir Bhutto's limo was stoned by angered PPP workers when she tried to visit Murtaza's funeral ceremonies. Her brother's death had crushed Nusrat Bhutto and immediately admitted to the local hospital after learning that her son had died. At Murtaza's funeral, Nusrat accused Benazir and Zardari of being responsible and vowed to pursue prosecution.
President Farooq Leghari
Farooq Leghari
Sardar Farooq Ahmad Khan Leghari was the eighth President of Pakistan from November 14, 1993 until December 2, 1997...
, who would dismiss the Bhutto government seven weeks after Murtaza's death, also suspected Benazir and Zardari's involvement. Several of Pakistan's leading newspapers alleged that Zardari wanted his brother-in-law out of the way because of Murtaza's activities as head of a breakaway faction of the PPP. In all, after this incident, Benazir Bhutto lost all the support from Sindh Province, and the public opinion later turned against her, with many believes that her spouse was allegedly involved in the murder, a claim her spouse strongly rejected.
Dismissal
The major government corruption was continued during her second regime by her appointed government members and cabinet ministers. Soon after the death of her younger brother, Benazir Bhutto widely became notorious and public opinion turned against her government. In Sindh Province, Benazir Bhutto lost all the support from the powerful feudal lords and political spectrum that turned against her. In 1996, the major civil-military scandal became internationally and nationally known when her spouse Asif Ali ZardariAsif Ali Zardari
Asif Ali Zardari is the 11th and current President of Pakistan and the Co-Chairman of the ruling Pakistan Peoples Party . He is also the widower of Benazir Bhutto, who served two nonconsecutive terms as Prime Minister....
(now the current President of Pakistan) was linked with then-Chief of Naval Staff
Chief of Naval Staff (Pakistan)
The Chief of the Naval Staff, abbreviated as CNS, is the highest ranking officer in the Pakistani Navy unless a 4-star naval officer is appointed as Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee. The current Chief of the Naval Staff is Admiral Asif Sandila who commands the Navy. The CNS reports...
and former Admiral Mansurol Haque. Known as Agosta class scandal, many of higher naval admirals and government officials of both French and Pakistan were accused to have get paid heavy commission while the deal was disclosed to sell this sensitive submarine technology to Pakistan Navy.
In November 1996, Bhutto's government was dismissed by Leghari primarily because of corruption and Murtaza's death, who used the Eighth Amendment discretionary powers to dissolve the government. The Supreme Court affirmed President Leghari's dismissal in a 6–1 ruling.
Criticism against Benazir Bhutto came from the powerful political spectrum of the Punjab Province and the Kashmir Province who opposed Benazir Bhutto, particularly the nationalization issue that led the lost of Punjab's privatized industries under the hands of her government. Bhutto blamed this opposition for the destabilization of Pakistan. Soon after her government was ended, the Naval intelligence
Naval Intelligence of Pakistan
The Directorate for the Naval Intelligence of Pakistan, abbreviated as NI, is a staff naval corps and naval intelligence directorate of Pakistan Navy, headquartered in Rawalpindi, Punjab. The NI directly reports to Chief of Naval Staff, and is subordinated to the Ministry of Defence of Pakistan...
led the arrest of Chief of Naval Staff and acquitted him with a running court-martial
Court-martial
A court-martial is a military court. A court-martial is empowered to determine the guilt of members of the armed forces subject to military law, and, if the defendant is found guilty, to decide upon punishment.Most militaries maintain a court-martial system to try cases in which a breach of...
sat up at the Naval Judge Advocate General Corps
Judge Advocate General Branch
The Judge Advocate General Branch of the Pakistan Armed Forces is composed of Pakistan's Military senior officers, lawyers and judges who provide legal services to the Army, Air Force, Navy, and Marines at all levels of command...
led by active duty 4-star admiral. Many of her government members and cabinet ministers including her spouse were thrown in jails and the trials were sat up at the civilian Supreme Court
Supreme Court of Pakistan
The Supreme Court is the apex court in Pakistan's judicial hierarchy, the final arbiter of legal and constitutional disputes. The Supreme Court has a permanent seat in Islamabad. It has number of Branch Registries where cases are heard. It has a number of de jure powers which are outlined in the...
. Faced with serious charges by the Navaz Sharif's government, Bhutto flew to Dubai
Dubai
Dubai is a city and emirate in the United Arab Emirates . The emirate is located south of the Persian Gulf on the Arabian Peninsula and has the largest population with the second-largest land territory by area of all the emirates, after Abu Dhabi...
with her three young children while her spouse was thrown in jail. Shortly after rising to power in a 1999 military coup, General Pervez Musharraf
Pervez Musharraf
Pervez Musharraf , is a retired four-star general who served as the 13th Chief of Army Staff and tenth President of Pakistan as well as tenth Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee. Musharraf headed and led an administrative military government from October 1999 till August 2007. He ruled...
characterized Bhutto's terms as an "era of sham democracy" and others characterized her terms a period of corrupt, failed governments.
Parliamentary opposition (1996–1999)
Benazir Bhutto suffered with wide range public disapproval after the intense corruption cases were made public, and it was clearly seen after Benazir Bhutto's brutal defeat in 1997 parliamentary electionsPakistani general election, 1997
A general election was held in Pakistan on 3 February 1997 to elect the National Assembly of Pakistan and the four provincial assemblies. The election took place after the previous Pakistan Peoples Party government of Benazir Bhutto was dismissed by President Farooq Leghari for alleged corruption...
. Soon, Benazir left for Dubai taking her three children with her, while her husband was set to face the trial.
Bhutto assumed the charge of Leader of the Opposition
Leader of the Opposition
The Leader of the Opposition is a title traditionally held by the leader of the largest party not in government in a Westminster System of parliamentary government...
in the Parliament despite living in Dubai, working for her public image while she was supportive towards the public reforms. In 1998, soon after the Indian nuclear tests
Pokhran-II
Pokharan-II refers to test explosions of five nuclear devices, three on 11 May and two on 13 May 1998, conducted by India at the Pokhran test range. These nuclear tests resulted in a variety of sanctions against India by a number of major states....
, Benazir publicly called for the tests, rallying and pressuring the elected Prime minister Nawaz Sharif to take the decision. Benazir had an internal political intelligence on deep circles of Prime minister that the elected Prime minister, Nawaz Sharif, was reluctant and hesitated to give authorization of the tests, therefore, a public call for test would increase her popularity numbers in country's political scoreboard. However, this move backfired when the Prime minister indeed authorized and gave orders to the scientists from PAEC
Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission
The Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission, , is an administrative governmental and autonomous science and technology governmental department of Pakistan, responsible for development of nuclear energy and development of nuclear power sector in Pakistan...
and KRL
Kahuta Research Laboratories
The Khan Research Laboratories ,, formerly known as Engineering Research Laboratories , is a multi-program Pakistan's weapons science and engineering research and development institute and nuclear research facility...
to conduct the tests. A wide range of approvals of these tests was conceived by Prime minister, and the public image and prestige of the Prime minister Nawaz Sharif was at its peak point. As for Benazir, it was a another political defeat and her image smoothly declined in 1998.
However, Pakistan entered
1999 in Pakistan
-May:* 20 May - massive hurricane strucks Sindh.* The Kargil conflict between Pakistan and India begins.* 31 May - Bangladesh defeats the Pakistan cricket team during the world cup.-June:...
in the year of 1999 that brought dramatic changes for Benazir Bhutto as well as the entire country. Benazir criticized Sharif for violating the Armed Forces's code of conduct when the Prime minister illegally appointed General Pervez Musharraf as Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee. Senior scientist, dr. Abdul Qadeer Khan
Abdul Qadeer Khan
Abdul Qadeer Khan , also known in Pakistan as Mohsin-e-Pakistan , D.Eng, Sc.D, HI, NI , FPAS; more widely known as Dr. A. Q...
, also criticized the Prime minister for making this move and rendered as Prime minister's unforgettable and biggest mistake, though he traced his remarks later.
In early months of 1999, Sharif remained widely popular while Sharif took initiatives to make peace
Lahore Declaration
The Lahore Declaration was a bilateral agreement between India and Pakistan signed on February 21, 1999 by the then-Prime Minister of India Atal Bihari Vajpayee and the then-Prime Minister of Pakistan Nawaz Sharif at the conclusion of a historic summit in Lahore, Pakistan...
with neighboring India. However, this all changes when Pakistan became involved with unpopular and undeclared war
Undeclared war
An undeclared war is a conflict that is fought between two or more nations without a formal declaration of war being issued.Since United Nations action in Korea, a number of democratic governments have pursued usually limited warfare by characterizing them as something else, such as a "military...
with India. This conflict, known as Kargil war
Kargil War
The Kargil War ,, also known as the Kargil conflict, was an armed conflict between India and Pakistan that took place between May and July 1999 in the Kargil district of Kashmir and elsewhere along the Line of Control...
, brought international embarrassment for the country, and the Prime minister's public image and prestige was destroyed in matter of two months. Benazir gave rogue criticism to the elected Prime minister, and called the Kargil War, "Pakistan's greatest blunder"
Lieutenant-General (retired) Ali Kuli Khan
Ali Kuli Khan
Lieutenant General Ali Kuli Khan Khattak, is senior retired three-star general and military strategist who was a former Chief of General Staff , Commander X Corps and Director General Military Intelligence of the Pakistan Army who was superseded when the then Lieutenant General Pervez Musharraf...
, Director-General of ISI at that time, also publicly criticized the Prime minister and labeled this war as "a disaster bigger than East-Pakistan
East Pakistan
East Pakistan was a provincial state of Pakistan established in 14 August 1947. The provincial state existed until its declaration of independence on 26 March 1971 as the independent nation of Bangladesh. Pakistan recognized the new nation on 16 December 1971. East Pakistan was created from Bengal...
". Benazir Bhutto, now joined by religious and liberal forces, made a tremendous effort to destroy the prestige and credibility of elected Prime minister, according to south Asia expert William Dalrymple. In August 1999, Sharif soon suffered another military disaster that completely shattered the Prime minister's image and mandate. In August, two Indian Air Force
Indian Air Force
The Indian Air Force is the air arm of the Indian armed forces. Its primary responsibility is to secure Indian airspace and to conduct aerial warfare during a conflict...
's MiG-21FL shot down the Pakistan Navy
Pakistan Navy
The Pakistan Navy is the naval warfare/service branch of the Pakistan Armed Forces. Pakistan's Navy is responsible for Pakistan's coastline along the Arabian Sea and the defense of important civilian harbors and military bases...
's reconnaissance plane killing 16 naval officers. Benazir Bhutto criticized the Prime minister for having failed to gather any support for the navy and publicly marks the comments on the Prime minister's declining of support of Navy. Sharif's relations with the Pakistan Armed Forces deteriorated as the Armed Forces began to criticized the Prime minister for causing the military disasters. During this time, Benazir's approval rates were immensely approved and received wide range of positive approval in the civil society. The Armed Forces Chiefs remained sympathetic towards Benazir as she continued to harassed and criticized the elected Prime minister.
Benazir Bhutto was highly confident that her party would secured the overwhelming victory on coming Senate elections on 1999 on Navaz Sharif's party in the Senate secretariat
Senate of Pakistan
The Senate of Pakistan is the upper house of the bicameral Parliament of Pakistan. Elections are held every three years for one half of the senate and each senator has a term of six years...
due to wide disapproval of the Prime minister. Controversially, when the coup d'état was initiated by Pakistan Armed Forces, Benazir Bhutto did not issued any comments nor criticized rather remaining silent in the support of General Pervez Musharraf, as noted by south Asia expert William Dalrymple.
Benazir remained supportive towards General Musharraf's massive arrests of Nawaz Sharif's workers in Pakistan. Ultimately, General Musharraf had destroyed and shattered Nawaz Sharif's political presence in Sindh and Kashmir
Azad Kashmir
Azad Jammu and Kashmir or Azad Kashmir for short, is the southernmost political entity within the Pakistani-administered part of the former princely state of Jammu and Kashmir...
Provinces. Many political offices of Sharif's constituency were forcefully closed and Sharif's sympathetic elements were forcefully jailed. In 2002, Benazir Bhutto and the MQM made a side-line deal with General Musharraf that allows both to continue underground political activities in Sindh and Kashmir Provinces and to fill the gap after Musharraf had destroyed Sharif's presence in the both provinces. It was seen clearly in 2008 parliamentary elections
Pakistani general election, 2008
A general election was held in Pakistan on 18 February 2008, after being postponed from 8 January 2008. The original date was intended to elect members of the National Assembly of Pakistan, the lower house of the Majlis-e-Shoora...
, when Nawaz Sharif failed to secure any vote back in Sindh and Kashmir Provinces. As aftermath of 2008, the PPP and the MQM formed the coalition government in Sindh and Kashmir Provinces and strongly opposed Nawaz Sharif in both provinces.
Charges of corruption
After the dismissal of Bhutto's first government on 6 August 1990 by President Ghulam Ishaq Khan on the grounds of corruption, the government of Pakistan issued directives to its intelligence agencies to investigate the allegations. After fourth national elections, Nawaz Sharif became the Prime Minister and intensified prosecution proceedings against Bhutto. Pakistani embassies through western Europe, in France, Switzerland, Spain, Poland and Britain were directed to investigate the matter. Bhutto and her husband faced a number of legal proceedings, including a charge of laundering money through Swiss banksBanking in Switzerland
All banks in Switzerland are regulated by Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority , which derives its authority from a series of federal statutes...
. Though never convicted, her husband, Asif Ali Zardari
Asif Ali Zardari
Asif Ali Zardari is the 11th and current President of Pakistan and the Co-Chairman of the ruling Pakistan Peoples Party . He is also the widower of Benazir Bhutto, who served two nonconsecutive terms as Prime Minister....
, spent eight years in prison on similar corruption charges. After being released on bail in 2004, Zardari suggested that his time in prison involved torture; human rights groups have supported his claim that his rights were violated.
A 1998 New York Times investigative report claims that Pakistani investigators have documents that uncover a network of bank accounts, all linked to the family's lawyer in Switzerland, with Asif Zardari as the principal shareholder. According to the article, documents released by the French authorities indicated that Zardari offered exclusive rights to Dassault, a French aircraft manufacturer, to replace the air force's fighter jets
Fighter aircraft
A fighter aircraft is a military aircraft designed primarily for air-to-air combat with other aircraft, as opposed to a bomber, which is designed primarily to attack ground targets...
in exchange for a 5% commission to be paid to a Swiss corporation controlled by Zardari. The article also said a Dubai company received an exclusive license to import gold into Pakistan for which Asif Zardari received payments of more than $10 million into his Dubai-based Citibank
Citibank
Citibank, a major international bank, is the consumer banking arm of financial services giant Citigroup. Citibank was founded in 1812 as the City Bank of New York, later First National City Bank of New York...
accounts. The owner of the company denied that he had made payments to Zardari and claims the documents were forged.
Bhutto maintained that the charges leveled against her and her husband were purely political. An Auditor General of Pakistan
Auditor General of Pakistan
The Auditor General of Pakistan or Auditor General is an government organization and the prime institution in the country for ensuring public accountability and fiscal transparency in governmental operations...
(AGP) report supports Bhutto's claim. It presents information suggesting that Benazir Bhutto was ousted from power in 1990 as a result of a witch hunt approved by then-president Ghulam Ishaq Khan. The AGP report says Khan illegally paid legal advisers 28 million rupees to file 19 corruption cases against Bhutto and her husband in 1990–92.
Yet the assets held by Bhutto and her husband continue to be scrutinized and speculated about. The prosecutors have alleged that their Swiss bank accounts contain £740 million. Zardari also bought a neo-Tudor
Tudor style architecture
The Tudor architectural style is the final development of medieval architecture during the Tudor period and even beyond, for conservative college patrons...
mansion and estate worth over £4 million in Surrey
Surrey
Surrey is a county in the South East of England and is one of the Home Counties. The county borders Greater London, Kent, East Sussex, West Sussex, Hampshire and Berkshire. The historic county town is Guildford. Surrey County Council sits at Kingston upon Thames, although this has been part of...
, England, UK. The Pakistani investigations have tied other overseas properties to Zardari's family. These include a $2.5 million manor in Normandy
Normandy
Normandy is a geographical region corresponding to the former Duchy of Normandy. It is in France.The continental territory covers 30,627 km² and forms the preponderant part of Normandy and roughly 5% of the territory of France. It is divided for administrative purposes into two régions:...
owned by Zardari's parents, who had modest assets at the time of his marriage. Bhutto denied holding substantive overseas assets.
Despite numerous cases and charges of corruption registered against Bhutto by Nawaz Sharif between 1996–1999 and Pervez Musharraf
Pervez Musharraf
Pervez Musharraf , is a retired four-star general who served as the 13th Chief of Army Staff and tenth President of Pakistan as well as tenth Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee. Musharraf headed and led an administrative military government from October 1999 till August 2007. He ruled...
from 1999 till 2008, she was yet to be convicted in any case after a lapse of twelve years since their commencement. The cases were withdrawn by the government of Pakistan after the return to power of Bhutto's Pakistan Peoples Party
Pakistan Peoples Party
The Pakistan Peoples Party , is a democratic socialist political party in Pakistan affiliated with Socialist International. Pakistan People's Party is the largest political party of Pakistan...
in 2008.
Early 2000s in exile
The end of 1999s, the one-time populist prime minister Nawaz SharifNawaz Sharif
Mian Mohammad Nawaz Sharif is a Pakistani conservative politician and steel magnate who served as 12th Prime Minister of Pakistan in two non-consecutive terms from November 1990 to July 1993, and from February 1997 to October 12, 1999...
had became widely unpopular, and following the military coup, Sharif's credibility, image, and even his career was destroyed by General Pervez Musharraf in Pakistan. Musharraf formed the Pakistan Muslim League (Q)
Pakistan Muslim League (Q)
The Pakistan Muslim League or officially Pakistan Muslim League is a centrist, modern political party in Pakistan. The present form of PML-Q was formed prior to 2002 general elections....
in order to politically vanished the former prime minister's party in Balochistan, Punjab, Sindh, Khyber, and Kashmir Provinces. The Pakistan Muslim League (Q) had consisted of those who were initially part of the former prime minister's party but then moved with Musharraf in order to avoid prosecution and going to jail. The year of 2000 brought positive changes for Benazir Bhutto who widely became unpopular in Pakistan in 1996. In 2000s, following the declassification of secret Hamoodur Rahman Commission's papers and other secret documents of 1970s, Benazir Bhutto's support in Pakistan began to take place. Her image in the country widely became positive and People's Party seemed to be coming back in the government soon the new elections
Pakistani general election, 2002
General elections were held in Pakistan on 10 October 2002 during the military regime of Pervez Musharraf.-Parties and candidates:More than 70 parties, contested the election, the main parties were the Peoples Party Parliamentarians, Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz Group, Muttahida Quami Movement ,...
were scheduled to take place. Amid fear of coming back of Benazir Bhutto threatened Pervez Musharraf, therefore, Musharraf released many of the political prisoners of the liberal-secular force, the Mutahidda Qaumi Movement (MQM). Musharraf saw MQM as the vital political weapon of holding back of Pakistan Peoples Party. But, MQM had only support in Karachi
Karachi
Karachi is the largest city, main seaport and the main financial centre of Pakistan, as well as the capital of the province of Sindh. The city has an estimated population of 13 to 15 million, while the total metropolitan area has a population of over 18 million...
at that time, and lacked its support to urban areas of Sindh, which remained a vital threat for Musharraf.
Therefore, in 2002, Pakistan president Pervez Musharraf
Pervez Musharraf
Pervez Musharraf , is a retired four-star general who served as the 13th Chief of Army Staff and tenth President of Pakistan as well as tenth Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee. Musharraf headed and led an administrative military government from October 1999 till August 2007. He ruled...
amended Pakistan's constitution to ban prime ministers from serving more than two terms, fearing the comeback of Benazir Bhutto. This disqualified Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif from ever holding the office again. This move was widely considered to be a direct attack on former prime ministers Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif
Nawaz Sharif
Mian Mohammad Nawaz Sharif is a Pakistani conservative politician and steel magnate who served as 12th Prime Minister of Pakistan in two non-consecutive terms from November 1990 to July 1993, and from February 1997 to October 12, 1999...
. On 3 August 2003, Bhutto became a member of Minhaj ul Quran International (an international Muslim educational and welfare organization).
Public life
While living in DubaiDubai
Dubai is a city and emirate in the United Arab Emirates . The emirate is located south of the Persian Gulf on the Arabian Peninsula and has the largest population with the second-largest land territory by area of all the emirates, after Abu Dhabi...
, United Arab Emirates
United Arab Emirates
The United Arab Emirates, abbreviated as the UAE, or shortened to "the Emirates", is a state situated in the southeast of the Arabian Peninsula in Western Asia on the Persian Gulf, bordering Oman, and Saudi Arabia, and sharing sea borders with Iraq, Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, and Iran.The UAE is a...
, she cared for her three children and her mother Nusrat
Nusrat Bhutto
Begum Nusrat Bhutto was an Iranian-Pakistani who was the wife of the 9th Prime Minister of Pakistan Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, serving as the First Lady of Pakistan during his premiership from 1971 until Bhutto's removal in 1977. She became her husband's successor as the chairman of the Pakistan Peoples...
, who was suffering from Alzheimer's disease
Alzheimer's disease
Alzheimer's disease also known in medical literature as Alzheimer disease is the most common form of dementia. There is no cure for the disease, which worsens as it progresses, and eventually leads to death...
, traveling to give lectures and keeping in touch with the PPP's supporters. They were reunited with her husband in December 2004 after more than five years. In 2006, Interpol
Interpol
Interpol, whose full name is the International Criminal Police Organization – INTERPOL, is an organization facilitating international police cooperation...
issued a request for the arrest of Bhutto and her husband on corruption charges, at the request of Pakistan. The Bhuttos questioned the legality of the requests in a letter to Interpol. On 27 January 2007, she was invited by the United States to speak to President George W. Bush
George W. Bush
George Walker Bush is an American politician who served as the 43rd President of the United States, from 2001 to 2009. Before that, he was the 46th Governor of Texas, having served from 1995 to 2000....
and Congressional and State Department officials. Bhutto appeared as a panellist on the BBC TV
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
programme Question Time
Question Time (TV series)
Question Time is a topical debate BBC television programme in the United Kingdom, based on Any Questions?. The show typically features politicians from at least the three major political parties as well as other public figures who answer questions put to them by the audience...
in the UK in March 2007. She has also appeared on BBC current affairs programme Newsnight
Newsnight
Newsnight is a BBC Television current affairs programme noted for its in-depth analysis and often robust cross-examination of senior politicians. Jeremy Paxman has been its main presenter for over two decades....
on several occasions. She rebuffed comments made by Muhammad Ijaz-ul-Haq
Muhammad Ijaz-ul-Haq
Ch Muhammad Ijaz-ul-Haq is a prominent Pakistani politician and a businessman who served as a Federal Minister for Religious Affairs and Minorities under the Government of Prime minister Shaukat Aziz. A former Pakistan Army officer, Haq joined the Pakistan Army in 1971, as second lieutnenat, but...
in May 2007 regarding the knighthood of Salman Rushdie
Knighthood of Salman Rushdie
In mid-June 2007 Salman Rushdie, British Indian novelist and author of controversial novel The Satanic Verses, was created a Knight Bachelor by HM Queen Elizabeth II. This action brought much controversy around the world in many countries with Muslim majority populations...
, citing that he was calling for the assassination of foreign citizens.
Intention to return to Pakistan
Bhutto had declared her intention to return to Pakistan within 2007, which she did, in spite of Musharraf's statements of May 2007 about not allowing her to return ahead of the country's general election, due late 2007 or early 2008. It was speculated that she may have been offered the office of Prime Minister again.Attitudes toward Urdu-speaking class
Arthur HermanArthur Herman
Arthur L. Herman is an American Ph.D., author and lecturer. His father had been a professor and had once spent a semester at Edinburgh University...
, a U.S. historian, in a controversial letter published in The Wall Street Journal
The Wall Street Journal
The Wall Street Journal is an American English-language international daily newspaper. It is published in New York City by Dow Jones & Company, a division of News Corporation, along with the Asian and European editions of the Journal....
on 14 June 2007, in response to an article by Bhutto highly critical of the president and his policies, described her as "One of the most incompetent leaders in the history of South Asia," and asserted that she and other elites in Pakistan hate Musharraf because he was a muhajir, the son of one of millions of Indian Muslims
Islam in India
Islam is the second-most practiced religion in the Republic of India after Hinduism, with more than 13.4% of the country's population ....
who fled to Pakistan during independence in 1947. Herman claimed, "Although it was muhajirs who agitated for the creation of Pakistan in the first place, many native Pakistanis view them with contempt and treat them as third-class citizens." The author also noted that Bhutto excessively used the words "rats" and "bad blood" while she was briefed and later gave authorization of Operation Blue Fox to limit the Muhajir political activities in Sindh. The MQM refereed this operation as strong emphasis and forced imposition of Pakistan-based Jim Crow laws
Jim Crow laws
The Jim Crow laws were state and local laws in the United States enacted between 1876 and 1965. They mandated de jure racial segregation in all public facilities, with a supposedly "separate but equal" status for black Americans...
against Urdu-speaking class. While researching, an unknown Urdu-speaking spokesperson, told the historian that "we have bad blood; it was this blood that built this country".
In 1980s, Benazir Bhutto quietly and quickly removed the Urdu-speaking sentiment from her party, starting with most notable dr. Mubashir Hassan
Mubashir Hassan
Mubashir Hassan PhD, is a Pakistani civil engineer and science administrator known for his work in Hydraulics and his political role in the development of the atom bomb project....
, co-founder of Pakistan People's Party and close friend of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto. From the inception of the party, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto had enjoyed a strong relations with Urdu-speaking communities and muhajirs had strong base in People's Party of Pakistan, and remained supporter of her father till the end. Many attribute Benazir's hatred towards Muhajir, was the imposition of martial law and then hanging of her father by General Zia-ul-Haq, a Punjabi muhajir from Jalandhar.
U.S. attempt for a Musharaff-Bhutto deal
Nonetheless, by mid-2007, the U.S. appeared to be pushing for a deal in which Musharraf would remain as president but step down as military head, and either Bhutto or one of her nominees would become prime minister.On 11 July 2007, the Associated Press, in an article about the possible aftermath of the Red Mosque incident, wrote:
Benazir Bhutto, the former prime minister and opposition leader expected by many to return from exile and join Musharraf in a power-sharing deal after year-end general elections, praised him for taking a tough line on the Red Mosque.
"I'm glad there was no cease-fireCeasefireA ceasefire is a temporary stoppage of a war in which each side agrees with the other to suspend aggressive actions. Ceasefires may be declared as part of a formal treaty, but they have also been called as part of an informal understanding between opposing forces...
with the militants in the mosque because cease-fires simply embolden the militants," she told Britain's Sky TV on Tuesday. "There will be a backlash, but at some time we have to stop appeasing the militants."
This remark about the Red Mosque was seen with dismay in Pakistan as reportedly hundreds of young students were burned to death and remains are untraceable and cases are being heard in Pakistani supreme court as a missing persons issue. This and subsequent support for Musharraf led Elder Bhutto's comrades like Khar to criticize her publicly.
Bhutto however advised Musharraf in an early phase of the latter's quarrel with the Chief Justice, to restore him. Her PPP did not capitalize on its CEC member, Aitzaz Ahsan
Aitzaz Ahsan
Chaudhry Aitzaz Ahsan is a Pakistani lawmaker, barrister, and politician from Pakistan's People's Party who served as President of the Supreme Court Bar Association of Pakistan.-Early life and education:...
, the chief Barrister for the Chief Justice, in successful restoration. Rather he was seen as a rival and was isolated.
2002 election
The Bhutto-led PPP secured the highest number of votes (28.42%) and eighty seats (23.16%) in the national assembly in the October 2002 general electionsPakistani general election, 2002
General elections were held in Pakistan on 10 October 2002 during the military regime of Pervez Musharraf.-Parties and candidates:More than 70 parties, contested the election, the main parties were the Peoples Party Parliamentarians, Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz Group, Muttahida Quami Movement ,...
. Pakistan Muslim League (N)
Pakistan Muslim League (N)
The Pakistan Muslim League is a conservative political party in Pakistan, affiliated with Western conservatism...
(PML-N) managed to win eighteen seats only. Some of the elected candidates of PPP formed a faction of their own, calling it PPP-Patriots, which was being led by Faisal Saleh Hayat
Faisal Saleh Hayat
Makhdoom Syed Faisal Saleh Hayat is a Pakistani politician from Jhang, Punjab, Pakistan. Faisal Saleh Hayat was born in Lahore in 1952 to a landlord Shia Muslim family of Jhang, Punjab.- Education :Faisal Saleh Hayat is also a successful businessman...
, the former leader of Bhutto-led PPP. They later formed a coalition government with Musharraf's party, PML-Q.
Possible deal with the Musharraf Government
In mid-2002 Musharraf implemented a two-term limit on Prime Ministers. Both Bhutto and Musharraf's other chief rival, Nawaz Sharif, had already served two terms as Prime Minister.In July 2007, some of Bhutto's frozen funds were released. Bhutto continued to face significant charges of corruption. In an 8 August 2007 interview with the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation
Canadian Broadcasting Corporation
The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, commonly known as CBC and officially as CBC/Radio-Canada, is a Canadian crown corporation that serves as the national public radio and television broadcaster...
, Bhutto revealed the meeting focused on her desire to return to Pakistan for the 2008 elections, and of Musharraf retaining the Presidency with Bhutto as Prime Minister. On 29 August 2007, Bhutto announced that Musharraf would step down as chief of the army. On 1 September 2007, Bhutto vowed to return to Pakistan "very soon", regardless of whether or not she reached a power-sharing deal with Musharraf before then.
On 17 September 2007, Bhutto accused Musharraf's allies of pushing Pakistan into crisis by their refusal to permit democratic reforms and power-sharing. A nine-member panel of Supreme Court
Supreme Court of Pakistan
The Supreme Court is the apex court in Pakistan's judicial hierarchy, the final arbiter of legal and constitutional disputes. The Supreme Court has a permanent seat in Islamabad. It has number of Branch Registries where cases are heard. It has a number of de jure powers which are outlined in the...
judges deliberated on six petitions (including one from Jamaat-e-Islami
Jamaat-e-Islami
This article is about Jamaat-e-Islami Pakistan. For other organizations of similar name see Jamaat-e-Islami The Jamaat-e-Islami , is a Pro-Muslim political party in Pakistan...
, Pakistan's largest Islamic group) asserting that Musharraf be disqualified from contending for the presidency of Pakistan. Bhutto stated that her party could join one of the opposition groups, potentially that of Nawaz Sharif
Nawaz Sharif
Mian Mohammad Nawaz Sharif is a Pakistani conservative politician and steel magnate who served as 12th Prime Minister of Pakistan in two non-consecutive terms from November 1990 to July 1993, and from February 1997 to October 12, 1999...
. Attorney-general Malik Mohammed Qayyum stated that, pendente lite
Pendente lite
Pendente lite is a Latin term meaning "while the litigation is pending" which is used for court orders or legal agreements entered into while a matter is pending...
, the Election Commission
Election Commission of Pakistan
The Election Commission of Pakistan is an independent and autonomous constitutional body charged with the function of conducting transparent, free, fair and impartial elections to the National and Provincial Assemblies. The holding of elections to the office of the President and the Senate are,...
was "reluctant" to announce the schedule for the presidential vote. Bhutto's party's Farhatullah Babar
Farhatullah Babar
Farhatullah Babar is a Pakistani politician and Parliamentarian from Pakistan People's Party to the Parliament. He is a senior member of the Pakistan Peoples Party and served in the Pakistani Senate from 2003 to 2006. He was an outspoken critic of the former Pakistani administration headed by...
stated that the Constitution of Pakistan
Constitution of Pakistan
The Constitution of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan is the supreme law of Pakistan. Known as the Constitution of 1973, it was drafted by the government of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto and, following additions by the opposition parties, was approved by the legislative assembly on April 10, 1973...
could bar Musharraf from being elected again because he was already chief of the army: "As Gen. Musharraf was disqualified from contesting for President, he has prevailed upon the Election Commission to arbitrarily and illegally tamper with the Constitution of Pakistan."
Musharraf prepared to switch to a strictly civilian role by resigning from his position as commander-in-chief of the armed forces. He still faced other legal obstacles to running for re-election. On 2 October 2007, Gen. Musharraf named Lt. Gen. Ashfaq Kayani, as vice chief of the army starting 8 October with the intent that if Musharraf won the presidency and resigned his military post, Kayani would become chief of the army. Meanwhile, Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed stated that officials agreed to grant Benazir Bhutto amnesty
Amnesty
Amnesty is a legislative or executive act by which a state restores those who may have been guilty of an offense against it to the positions of innocent people, without changing the laws defining the offense. It includes more than pardon, in as much as it obliterates all legal remembrance of the...
versus pending corruption charges. She has emphasized the smooth transition and return to civilian rule and has asked Pervez Musharraf to shed uniform. On 5 October 2007, Musharraf signed the National Reconciliation Ordinance, giving amnesty to Bhutto and other political leaders—except exiled former premier Nawaz Sharif—in all court cases against them, including all corruption charges. The Ordinance came a day before Musharraf faced the crucial presidential poll. Both Bhutto's opposition party, the PPP, and the ruling PMLQ, were involved in negotiations beforehand about the deal. In return, Bhutto and the PPP agreed not to boycott the Presidential election. On 6 October 2007, Musharraf won a parliamentary election for President. However, the Supreme Court ruled that no winner can be officially proclaimed until it finishes deciding on whether it was legal for Musharraf to run for President while remaining Army General. Bhutto's PPP party did not join the other opposition parties' boycott of the election, but did abstain from voting. Later, Bhutto demanded security coverage on-par with the President's. Bhutto also contracted foreign security firms for her protection.
Return to Pakistan and the assassination attempt
Wolf Blitzer
Wolf Isaac Blitzer is an American journalist who has been a CNN reporter since 1990. Blitzer is currently the host of the newscast The Situation Room and was the host of the Sunday talk show Late Edition until it was discontinued on January 11, 2009...
of CNN
CNN
Cable News Network is a U.S. cable news channel founded in 1980 by Ted Turner. Upon its launch, CNN was the first channel to provide 24-hour television news coverage, and the first all-news television channel in the United States...
, she readily admitted the possibility of attack on herself.
After eight years in exile in Dubai
Dubai
Dubai is a city and emirate in the United Arab Emirates . The emirate is located south of the Persian Gulf on the Arabian Peninsula and has the largest population with the second-largest land territory by area of all the emirates, after Abu Dhabi...
and London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
, Bhutto returned to Karachi
Karachi
Karachi is the largest city, main seaport and the main financial centre of Pakistan, as well as the capital of the province of Sindh. The city has an estimated population of 13 to 15 million, while the total metropolitan area has a population of over 18 million...
on 18 October 2007, to prepare for the 2008 national elections
Pakistani general election, 2008
A general election was held in Pakistan on 18 February 2008, after being postponed from 8 January 2008. The original date was intended to elect members of the National Assembly of Pakistan, the lower house of the Majlis-e-Shoora...
.
En route to a rally in Karachi on 18 October 2007, two explosions occurred shortly after Bhutto had landed and left Jinnah International Airport
Jinnah International Airport
Jinnah International Airport is Pakistan's largest international and domestic airport. It is located in Karachi, Pakistan, and its passenger terminal is also commonly known as the جناح ٹرمینل Jinnah Terminal...
. She was not injured but the explosions, later found to be a suicide-bomb attack
2007 Karachi bombing
The 2007 Karachi bombing of October 18, 2007 in Karachi, Pakistan, was an attack on a motorcade carrying former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto. The bombing occurred two months before she was assassinated...
, killed 136 people and injured at least 450. The dead included at least 50 of the security guards from her PPP who had formed a human chain around her truck to keep potential bombers away, as well as six police officers. A number of senior officials were injured. Bhutto, after nearly ten hours of the parade through Karachi, ducked back down into the steel command center to remove her sandals from her swollen feet, moments before the bomb went off.
She was escorted unharmed from the scene.
Bhutto later claimed that she had warned the Pakistani government that suicide bomb squads would target her upon her return to Pakistan and that the government had failed to act. She was careful not to blame Pervez Musharraf
Pervez Musharraf
Pervez Musharraf , is a retired four-star general who served as the 13th Chief of Army Staff and tenth President of Pakistan as well as tenth Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee. Musharraf headed and led an administrative military government from October 1999 till August 2007. He ruled...
for the attacks, accusing instead "certain individuals within the government who abuse their positions, who abuse their powers" to advance the cause of Islamic militants. Shortly after the attempt on her life, Bhutto wrote a letter to Musharraf naming four persons whom she suspected of carrying out the attack. Those named included Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi
Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi
Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi , is a Pakistani politician. He was the Chief Minister of Pakistan's most populous province, Punjab, from 2002 to 2007. He is a senior leader and Provincial President of Pakistan Muslim League, Punjab....
, a rival PML-Q politician and chief minister of Pakistan's Punjab province, Hamid Gul, former director of the Inter-Services Intelligence
Inter-Services Intelligence
The Directorate for Inter-Services Intelligence , is Pakistan's premier intelligence agency, responsible for providing critical national security intelligence assessment to the Government of Pakistan...
, and Ijaz Shah
Ijaz Shah
Brigadier Ijaz Shah is a retired Pakistan Army officer and the former Director-General of Intelligence Bureau of Pakistan, and a long-term close associate of Pervez Musharraf, and a former Pakistan Inter-Services Intelligence operator. He resigned as the IB chief on 17 March 2008...
, the director general of the Intelligence Bureau, another of the country's intelligence agencies. All those named are close associates of General Musharraf. Bhutto had a long history of accusing parts of the government, particularly Pakistan's premier military intelligence agencies, of working against her and her party because they oppose her liberal, secular agenda. Bhutto claimed that the ISI has for decades backed militant Islamic groups in Kashmir
Kashmir
Kashmir is the northwestern region of the Indian subcontinent. Until the mid-19th century, the term Kashmir geographically denoted only the valley between the Great Himalayas and the Pir Panjal mountain range...
and in Afghanistan
Afghanistan
Afghanistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, is a landlocked country located in the centre of Asia, forming South Asia, Central Asia and the Middle East. With a population of about 29 million, it has an area of , making it the 42nd most populous and 41st largest nation in the world...
. She was protected by her vehicle and a "human cordon" of supporters who had anticipated suicide attacks and formed a chain around her to prevent potential bombers from getting near her. The total number of injured, according to PPP sources, stood at 1000, with at least 160 dead (The New York Times claims 134 dead and about 450 injured).
A few days later, Bhutto's lawyer Senator Farooq H. Naik said he received a letter threatening to kill his client.
2007 State of Emergency and response
On 3 November 2007, President Pervez Musharraf declared a state of emergency, citing actions by the Supreme Court of Pakistan and religious extremism in the nation. Bhutto returned to the country, interrupting a visit to family in Dubai. She was greeted by supporters chanting slogans at the airport. After staying in her plane for several hours she was driven to her home in LahoreLahore
Lahore is the capital of the Pakistani province of Punjab and the second largest city in the country. With a rich and fabulous history dating back to over a thousand years ago, Lahore is no doubt Pakistan's cultural capital. One of the most densely populated cities in the world, Lahore remains a...
, accompanied by hundreds of supporters. While acknowledging that Pakistan faced a political crisis, she noted that Musharraf's declaration of emergency, unless lifted, would make it very difficult to have fair elections. She commented that "The extremists need a dictatorship, and dictatorship needs extremists."
On 8 November 2007, Bhutto was placed under house arrest
House arrest
In justice and law, house arrest is a measure by which a person is confined by the authorities to his or her residence. Travel is usually restricted, if allowed at all...
just a few hours before she was due to lead and address a rally against the state of emergency.
During a telephone interview with National Public Radio in the United States, Ms. Bhutto said "I have freedom of movement within the house. I do not have freedom of movement outside the house. They've got a heavy police force inside the house, and we've got a very heavy police force - 4,000 policemen around the four walls of my house, 1,000 on each. They've even entered the neighbors' house. And I was just telling one of the policemen, I said 'should you be here after us? Should not you be looking for Osama bin Laden?' And he said, 'I'm sorry, ma'am, this is our job. We're just doing what we are told.'"
The following day, the Pakistani government announced that Bhutto's arrest warrant had been withdrawn and that she would be free to travel and to appear at public rallies. However, leaders of other opposition political parties remained prohibited from speaking in public.
Preparation for 2008 elections
On 2 November 2007, Bhutto participated in an interview with David FrostDavid Frost
Sir David Frost is a British broadcaster.David Frost may also refer to:*David Frost , South African golfer*David Frost , classical record producer*David Frost *Dave Frost, baseball pitcher...
on Al Jazeera
Al Jazeera
Al Jazeera is an independent broadcaster owned by the state of Qatar through the Qatar Media Corporation and headquartered in Doha, Qatar...
, stating Osama Bin Laden
Osama bin Laden
Osama bin Mohammed bin Awad bin Laden was the founder of the militant Islamist organization Al-Qaeda, the jihadist organization responsible for the September 11 attacks on the United States and numerous other mass-casualty attacks against civilian and military targets...
had been murdered by Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh
Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh
Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh is a British-born militant of Pakistani descent with links to various Islamist militant organisations, including Jaish-e-Mohammed, al-Qaeda, Harkat-ul-Mujahideen and the Taliban.He was arrested and served time in prison for...
, who is one of the men convicted of kidnapping and killing U.S. journalist Daniel Pearl
Daniel Pearl
Daniel Pearl was an American journalist who was kidnapped and killed by Al-Qaeda.At the time of his kidnapping, Pearl served as the South Asia Bureau Chief of the Wall Street Journal, and was based in Mumbai, India. He went to Pakistan as part of an investigation into the alleged links between...
. Frost never asked a follow up question regarding the claim that Bin Laden was dead. Her interview could later be viewed on BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
's website, although it was initially distorted by the BBC as her claim about Bin Laden's death was taken out. But, once people discovered this and started posting evidence on YouTube
YouTube
YouTube is a video-sharing website, created by three former PayPal employees in February 2005, on which users can upload, view and share videos....
, the BBC replaced its version with the version that was originally aired on Al Jazeera.
This led to conspiracy theories which conveniently ignore the fact that Bhutto referred to Osama Bin Laden
Osama bin Laden
Osama bin Mohammed bin Awad bin Laden was the founder of the militant Islamist organization Al-Qaeda, the jihadist organization responsible for the September 11 attacks on the United States and numerous other mass-casualty attacks against civilian and military targets...
as being alive after the David Frost
David Frost
Sir David Frost is a British broadcaster.David Frost may also refer to:*David Frost , South African golfer*David Frost , classical record producer*David Frost *Dave Frost, baseball pitcher...
interview.
On 24 November 2007, Bhutto filed her nomination papers for January's Parliamentary elections; two days later, she filed papers in the Larkana constituency for two regular seats. She did so as former Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif
Nawaz Sharif
Mian Mohammad Nawaz Sharif is a Pakistani conservative politician and steel magnate who served as 12th Prime Minister of Pakistan in two non-consecutive terms from November 1990 to July 1993, and from February 1997 to October 12, 1999...
, following seven years of exile in Saudi Arabia
Saudi Arabia
The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia , commonly known in British English as Saudi Arabia and in Arabic as as-Sa‘ūdiyyah , is the largest state in Western Asia by land area, constituting the bulk of the Arabian Peninsula, and the second-largest in the Arab World...
, made his much-contested return to Pakistan and bid for candidacy.
When sworn in again on 30 November 2007, this time as a civilian president after relinquishing his post as military chief, Musharraf announced his plan to lift the Pakistan's state of emergency rule on 16 December. Bhutto welcomed the announcement and launched a manifesto outlining her party's domestic issues. Bhutto told journalists in Islamabad
Islamabad
Islamabad is the capital of Pakistan and the tenth largest city in the country. Located within the Islamabad Capital Territory , the population of the city has grown from 100,000 in 1951 to 1.7 million in 2011...
that her party, the PPP, would focus on "the five E's": employment, education, energy, environment, equality.
On 4 December 2007, Bhutto met with Nawaz Sharif to publicize their demand that Musharraf fulfill his promise to lift the state of emergency before January's parliamentary elections, threatening to boycott the vote if he failed to comply. They promised to assemble a committee that would present to Musharraf the list of demands upon which their participation in the election was contingent.
On 8 December 2007, three unidentified gunmen stormed Bhutto's PPP office in the southern western province of Balochistan
Balochistan
Balochistan or Baluchistan is a region which covers parts of Afghanistan, Iran and Pakistan. It can also refer to one of several modern and historical territories within that region:...
. Three of Bhutto's supporters were killed.
Assassination
On 27 December 2007, Bhutto was killed while leaving a campaign rally for the PPP at Liaquat National BaghLiaquat National Bagh
Liaquat National Bagh , usually just referred to as Liaquat Bagh , is a famous park on Murree Road in the city of Rawalpindi, Punjab, Pakistan....
in the run-up to the January 2008 parliamentary elections. After entering her bulletproof vehicle, Bhutto stood up through its sunroof to wave to the crowds. At this point, a gunman fired shots at her and subsequently explosives were detonated near the vehicle killing approximately 20 people. Bhutto was critically wounded and was rushed to Rawalpindi General Hospital
Rawalpindi General Hospital
Rawalpindi General Hospital, Murree Road, Rawalpindi, is a major teaching hospital offering the basic specialities as well as psychiatry, orthopaedics, urology and cardiology. It has Rawalpindi’s only CT device. It is associated with Rawalpindi Medical College....
. She was taken into surgery at 17:35 local time
Pakistan Standard Time
Pakistan Time is the time zone for Pakistan. It is 5 hours ahead of GMT/UTC .The only tz database zone is Asia/Karachi.-History:The current Pakistan time was set up at midnight between 29 September and 30 1951...
, and pronounced dead at 18:16. The cause of death, whether it was to gunshot wounds, the explosion, or a combination thereof, was not fully determined until February 2008. Eventually, Scotland Yard investigators concluded that it was due to blunt force trauma to the head as she was tossed by the explosion.
Al-Qaeda
Al-Qaeda
Al-Qaeda is a global broad-based militant Islamist terrorist organization founded by Osama bin Laden sometime between August 1988 and late 1989. It operates as a network comprising both a multinational, stateless army and a radical Sunni Muslim movement calling for global Jihad...
commander Mustafa Abu al-Yazid claimed responsibility for the attack, and the Pakistani government stated that it had proof that Baitullah Mehsud
Baitullah Mehsud
Baitullah Mehsud was a leading militant in Waziristan, Pakistan, and the leader of the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan . He formed the TTP from an alliance of about five militant groups in December 2007. He is thought by U.S...
, affiliated with Lashkar i Jhangvi—an al-Qaeda-linked militant group—was the mastermind. However this was vigorously disputed by the Bhutto family, by the PPP that Bhutto had headed and by Mehsud himself. On 12 February 2011, an Anti-Terrorism Court in Rawalpindi issued an arrest warrant for Musharraf, claiming he was aware of an impending assassination attempt by the Taliban, but did not pass the information on to those responsible for protecting Bhutto.
After the assassination, there were initially a number of riots resulting in approximately 20 deaths, of which three were of police officers. President Musharraf decreed a three-day period of mourning.
Bhutto's widower 19-year-old son Bilawal Bhutto Zardari
Bilawal Bhutto Zardari
Bilawal Zardari Bhutto is the Chairman of the Pakistan Peoples Party. He is the only son of President Asif Ali Zardari and former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto.-Early life and education:...
succeeded his mother as titular head of the PPP, with his father effectively running the party until his son completes his studies at Christ Church, Oxford
Christ Church, Oxford
Christ Church or house of Christ, and thus sometimes known as The House), is one of the largest constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England...
.
Nuclear proliferation with North-Korea
Shyam Bhatia, an Indian journalist, alleged in his book Goodbye Shahzadi that in 1993, Bhutto had downloaded secret information on uranium enrichment, through Pakistan's former top scientist dr. Abdul Qadeer KhanAbdul Qadeer Khan
Abdul Qadeer Khan , also known in Pakistan as Mohsin-e-Pakistan , D.Eng, Sc.D, HI, NI , FPAS; more widely known as Dr. A. Q...
, to give to North Korea
North Korea
The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea , , is a country in East Asia, occupying the northern half of the Korean Peninsula. Its capital and largest city is Pyongyang. The Korean Demilitarized Zone serves as the buffer zone between North Korea and South Korea...
in exchange for information on developing ballistic missiles (Rodong-1) and that Bhutto had asked him to not tell the story during her lifetime. Nuclear expert David Albright
David Albright
David Albright, M.S., is the founder of the non-governmental Institute for Science and International Security , its current president, and author of several books on proliferation of atomic weapons. Albright holds a Master of Science in physics from Indiana University and a M.Sc. in mathematics...
of the Institute of Science and International Security said the allegations "made sense" given the timeline of North Korea's nuclear program. George Perkovich of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
The Carnegie Endowment for International Peace is a foreign-policy think tank based in Washington, D.C. The organization describes itself as being dedicated to advancing cooperation between nations and promoting active international engagement by the United States...
called Bhatia a "smart and serious guy." Selig Harrison of the Center for International Policy
Center for International Policy
The Center for International Policy is a non-profit public policy research and advocacy think tank with offices in Washington, D.C. and New York City. It was founded in 1975 in response to the Vietnam War. The Center describes its mission as "promoting a U.S...
called Bhatia "credible on Bhutto." The officials at the Pakistan Embassy
Embassy of Pakistan in Washington, D.C.
The Embassy of Pakistan in Washington, D.C. is the diplomatic mission of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan to the United States. It is located at 3517 International Court, Northwest, Washington, D.C., in the Cleveland Park neighborhood....
in Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....
denied the claims and a senior U.S. Department of State officials dismissed them, insisting that dr. Abdul Qadeer Khan
Abdul Qadeer Khan
Abdul Qadeer Khan , also known in Pakistan as Mohsin-e-Pakistan , D.Eng, Sc.D, HI, NI , FPAS; more widely known as Dr. A. Q...
, who had been earlier accused of proliferating secrets to North Korea (only to deny them later, prior to Bhatia's book), was the source. In spite of Pakistan Government's denial, leading experts has long believed that Khan had acted with the willingness of high government officials, and his activities were government sanction approved by President Ghulam Khan and Benazir Bhutto as Prime minister at that time, for their own benefits and personal agendas.
Position on 1998 Tests
In May of 1998, IndiaIndia
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
detonated its five nuclear devices in Pokhran Test Range
Pokhran
Pokhran is a city and a municipality located in Jaisalmer district in the Indian state of Rajasthan. It is a remote location in the Thar Desert region and served as the test site for India's first underground nuclear weapon detonation.-Geography:Pokhran http://marupradesh.org/ located at...
, and established itself as the sixth nuclear power. Benazir and the elite members of the Pakistan Peoples Party
Pakistan Peoples Party
The Pakistan Peoples Party , is a democratic socialist political party in Pakistan affiliated with Socialist International. Pakistan People's Party is the largest political party of Pakistan...
's Central Executive Committee
Central Committee
Central Committee was the common designation of a standing administrative body of communist parties, analogous to a board of directors, whether ruling or non-ruling in the twentieth century and of the surviving, mostly Trotskyist, states in the early twenty first. In such party organizations the...
publicly called for the Pakistan's nuclear tests, in response to India. However, it was later affirmed that Benazir and the People's Party had called for these tests to increase their popularity numbers— which was shattered in 1996 scandals— on the country's political scoring board. However, Benazir's calls for the tests had forced the Prime minister Nawaz Sharif to order and authorized the tests, which bloomed the Prime minister's reputation at a record level, despite Benazir Bhutto was the first one to publicly call for these tests for her own popularity.
In recent declassified and undated papers
United States diplomatic cables leak
The United States diplomatic cables leak, widely known as Cablegate, began in February 2010 when WikiLeaks—a non-profit organization that publishes submissions from anonymous whistleblowers—began releasing classified cables that had been sent to the U.S. State Department by 274 of its consulates,...
released by Wikileaks
Wikileaks
WikiLeaks is an international self-described not-for-profit organisation that publishes submissions of private, secret, and classified media from anonymous news sources, news leaks, and whistleblowers. Its website, launched in 2006 under The Sunshine Press organisation, claimed a database of more...
, Benazir Bhutto assured the americans she was against the of carrying out and conducting nuclear tests , Nawaz Sharif also made similar assurances to american diplomats. However Benazir Bhutto did not keep to that commitment and made had public calls for Pakistan to conduct tests as reply to Indian' nuclear tests (see Pokhran-II
Pokhran-II
Pokharan-II refers to test explosions of five nuclear devices, three on 11 May and two on 13 May 1998, conducted by India at the Pokhran test range. These nuclear tests resulted in a variety of sanctions against India by a number of major states....
) earlier. Bhutto maintained that the "eat grass" statements – used by former prime ministers Zulfikar Bhutto
Zulfikar Ali Bhutto
Zulfikar Ali Bhutto was 9th Prime Minister of Pakistan from 1973 to 1977, and prior to that, 4th President of Pakistan from 1971 to 1973. Bhutto was the founder of the Pakistan Peoples Party — the largest and most influential political party in Pakistan— and served as its chairman until his...
and Navaz Sharif – have been used to assure people of Pakistan that austerity measures would be adopted but national security would not be compromised. In an undated leaks, Bhutto was sought by the United States to soften her stance and support for nuclear tests, and cautioned Bhutto that her reaction to India’s tests had been criticized in the West
Western world
The Western world, also known as the West and the Occident , is a term referring to the countries of Western Europe , the countries of the Americas, as well all countries of Northern and Central Europe, Australia and New Zealand...
. Bhutto and her party's officials that the PPP publicly state that the issue of tests was too important to be used as a “political football”. While talking to an American diplomat, Bhutto said that the time for the test had passed and it would have a disastrous impact on Pakistan’s economy and international reputation. Bhutto said that, "I cannot say these things publicly, but neither will I call for a detonation". While Benazir Bhutto calculated her rival's popularity in Pakistan after the Prime minister had authorized the tests. Benazir Bhutto asserted that these tests "had erased the existed doubts and fear from the minds of people of Pakistan who questioned Pakistan's deterrence capability after 1971 collapse
Indo-Pakistani War of 1971
The Indo-Pakistani War of 1971 was a military conflict between India and Pakistan. Indian, Bangladeshi and international sources consider the beginning of the war to be Operation Chengiz Khan, Pakistan's December 3, 1971 pre-emptive strike on 11 Indian airbases...
".
Legacy
Commenting on her legacy, the acclaimed south Asia expert William Dalrymple commented that "It's wrong for the West simply to mourn Benazir Bhutto as a martyred democrat since her legacy was far murkier and more complex". Despite her western and positive image in the world, Bhutto's controversial policies and support have made her legacy more complicated and extremely difficult to describe in words. During her premiership, Bhutto had allegedly approved the support of the Taliban, and A.Q. Khan's proliferation was also started during her first government. Given she did not have a simple majority in her second term and that her government was dismissed before completing its tenure, Bhutto failed to revert the controversial Hudood OrdinanceHudood Ordinance
The Hudood Ordinance was a law in Pakistan that was enacted in 1979 as part of then-military ruler Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq's Islamization and replaced or revised in 2006 by the Women's Protection Bill....
— a presidential ordnance enforced to subordinate and suppress woman's rights and minority religious activities in Pakistan.
Domestic Challenges
Original cabinet members of Zulfikar Bhutto did not join Benazir's government, most notably Dr. Mubaschir HassanMubashir Hassan
Mubashir Hassan PhD, is a Pakistani civil engineer and science administrator known for his work in Hydraulics and his political role in the development of the atom bomb project....
who denied to work with Benazir Bhutto supposedly due to disagreement with her policies, notably the issue nationalization
Nationalization
Nationalisation, also spelled nationalization, is the process of taking an industry or assets into government ownership by a national government or state. Nationalization usually refers to private assets, but may also mean assets owned by lower levels of government, such as municipalities, being...
. Critics noted that Bhutto sidelined Urdu-speaking Muhajir sentiment in the party and feudal leaders and notable Sindhi nationalist were part of Benanzir's party. Benazir Bhutto, as opposed to her father, hated and strongly disliked Urdu-speaking Muhajirs, and considered them third-class citizens of Pakistan..
Assessment of 1997 elections
In most notable case was the approval of Operation Blue Fox to remove the major Urdu-speaking political party MQM where hundreds of Urdu-speaking communities were either targeted by the Pakistan Army Rangers. Furthermore, Benazir Bhutto ultimately lost support from Urdu-speaking communities in Pakistan and Muhajir sentiment was forced to give its vote to conservative leader Navaz Sharif and MQM for its choice to survive. It was clearly seen in 1997 parliamentary electionsPakistani general election, 1997
A general election was held in Pakistan on 3 February 1997 to elect the National Assembly of Pakistan and the four provincial assemblies. The election took place after the previous Pakistan Peoples Party government of Benazir Bhutto was dismissed by President Farooq Leghari for alleged corruption...
, when Urdu-speaking communities voted for Navaz Sharif who over-overwhelmingly won the election, securing victory both in landslide and Electoral vote
Electoral College of Pakistan
The President of Pakistan is chosen by an electoral college, in Pakistan. According to article 41 of the 1973 Constitution of Pakistan, this electoral college consists of the Senate, the National Assembly of Pakistan, and the Members of the Provincial Assemblies. Members of the National Assembly...
. For some observers, it was the worst parliamentary defeat of People's Party and Bhutto since the party's inception where Bhutto and People's party failed to secure any vote bank in the country..
Honors and Eponyms
In spite of her criticism, the Benazir Bhutto, the Iron Lady, remain respectable among in her rivals, and is often remembered with good wishes. Her rivals had always paid respect and respectably referred to her as B.B., and have never called her a name. Her efforts and struggle to save her father and the democracy remains a deep legacy that is respected among in her rivals. The Pakistani government honoured Bhutto on her birth anniversary by renaming the Islamabad International Airport as Benazir Bhutto International AirportBenazir Bhutto International Airport
Benazir Bhutto International Airport بینظیر بھٹّو بین الاقوامی ہوائی اڈہ is the third-largest airport in Pakistan, serving the capital Islamabad and its twin city Rawalpindi in the province of Punjab...
, Muree Road of Rawalpindi as Benazir Bhutto Road and Rawalpindi General Hospital as Benazir Bhutto Hospital. Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gillani
Yousaf Raza Gillani
Yousuf Raza Gilani is the current prime minister of Islamic Republic of Pakistan. He was nominated as Prime Minister by the PPP, with the support of its coalition partners, Pakistan Muslim League , Awami National Party, Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam and Muttahida Qaumi Movement, on 22 March 2008...
, a member of Bhutto's PPP ,also asked President Pervez Musharraf
Pervez Musharraf
Pervez Musharraf , is a retired four-star general who served as the 13th Chief of Army Staff and tenth President of Pakistan as well as tenth Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee. Musharraf headed and led an administrative military government from October 1999 till August 2007. He ruled...
to pardon
Pardon
Clemency means the forgiveness of a crime or the cancellation of the penalty associated with it. It is a general concept that encompasses several related procedures: pardoning, commutation, remission and reprieves...
convicts on death row
Death row
Death row signifies the place, often a section of a prison, that houses individuals awaiting execution. The term is also used figuratively to describe the state of awaiting execution , even in places where no special facility or separate unit for condemned inmates exists.After individuals are found...
on her birthday in honour of Bhutto.
The city of Nawabshah
Nawabshah
Nawabshah , or Shaheed Benazirabad, is a district in the Sindh province of Pakistan. It is headquarter of Shaheed Benazir Abad District...
in Sindh
Sindh
Sindh historically referred to as Ba'ab-ul-Islam , is one of the four provinces of Pakistan and historically is home to the Sindhi people. It is also locally known as the "Mehran". Though Muslims form the largest religious group in Sindh, a good number of Christians, Zoroastrians and Hindus can...
was renamed Benazirabad in her honor.
A university in the Dir Upper district of NWFP is opened in her name.Benazir Income Support Program (BISP), a program which provides benefits to the poorest Pakistanis, is named after Bhutto.
Benazir Bhutto's books
Daughter of the East was also released as:At the time of Bhutto's death, the manuscript for her third book, to be called Reconciliation: Islam, Democracy and the West, had been received by HarperCollins
HarperCollins
HarperCollins is a publishing company owned by News Corporation. It is the combination of the publishers William Collins, Sons and Co Ltd, a British company, and Harper & Row, an American company, itself the result of an earlier merger of Harper & Brothers and Row, Peterson & Company. The worldwide...
. The book, written with Mark Siegel, was published in February 2008.
See also
- Politics of PakistanPolitics of PakistanPolitics of Pakistan have taken place in the framework of a federal republic, where the system of government has at times been parliamentary, presidential, or semi-presidential. In the current parliamentary system, the President of Pakistan is the largely ceremonial head of state, the Prime...
- Asif Ali ZardariAsif Ali ZardariAsif Ali Zardari is the 11th and current President of Pakistan and the Co-Chairman of the ruling Pakistan Peoples Party . He is also the widower of Benazir Bhutto, who served two nonconsecutive terms as Prime Minister....
- Bilawal Bhutto ZardariBilawal Bhutto ZardariBilawal Zardari Bhutto is the Chairman of the Pakistan Peoples Party. He is the only son of President Asif Ali Zardari and former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto.-Early life and education:...
- Benazirabad
- International reaction to the assassination of Benazir BhuttoInternational reaction to the assassination of Benazir BhuttoThe international reaction to the assassination of Benazir Bhutto consisted of universal condemnation across the international community, including Pakistan's regional neighbors Afghanistan, China, India, Bangladesh, and Iran. Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh praised Bhutto's efforts for the...
- Mausoleum of Zulfiqar Ali BhuttoMausoleum of Zulfiqar Ali BhuttoMazar of Shaheed Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto is situated at Garhi Khuda Bakhsh, in Larkana District, Sindh, Pakistan.The mazar is notable for containing the graves of the Bhutto family and being the burial place of Zulfiqar, Murtaza, , and Benazir Bhutto....
Books about Benazir Bhutto
- W.F.Pepper, (1983), Benazir Bhutto, WF Pepper, ISBN 978-0-946781-00-3
- M. Fathers, (1992), Biography of Benazir Bhutto, W.H. Allen / Virgin Books, ISBN 978-0-245-54965-6
- Benazir Bhutto Selected Speeches 1989–2007, 600 Pages
- Articles written to pay tribute to Benazir Bhutto; Sani Panhwar, (2010) 247 Pages
Other related publications
- Abdullah Malik, (1988), Bhutto se Benazir tak: Siyasi tajziye, Maktabah-yi Fikr o Danish, ASIN B0000CRQJH
- Bashir Riaz, (2000), Blind justice, Fiction House, ASIN B0000CPHP8
- Khatm-i Nabuvat, ASIN B0000CRQ4A
- Mujahid Husain, (1999), Kaun bara bad °unvan: Benazir aur Navaz Sharif ki bad °unvaniyon par tahqiqati dastavez, Print La'in Pablisharz, ASIN B0000CRPC3
- Ahmad Ejaz, (1993), Benazir Bhutto's foreign policy: A study of Pakistan's relations with major powers, Classic, ASIN B0000CQV0Y
- Lubna Rafique, (1994), Benazir & British Press, 1986–1990, Gautam, ASIN B0000CP41S
- Sayyid Afzal Haidar, (1996), Bhutto trial, National Commission on History & Culture, ASIN B0000CPBFX
- Mumtaz Husain Bazmi, (1996), Zindanon se aivanon tak, al-Hamd Pablikeshanz, ASIN B0000CRPOT
- Unknown author, (1996), Napak sazish: Tauhin-i risalat ki saza ko khatm karne ka benazir sarkari mansubah, Intarnaishnal Institiyut af Tahaffuz-i
External links
- Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto from Pakistan People's Party
- Benazir Bhutto CNNCNNCable News Network is a U.S. cable news channel founded in 1980 by Ted Turner. Upon its launch, CNN was the first channel to provide 24-hour television news coverage, and the first all-news television channel in the United States...
topic - Benzir Bhutto New York Times topic
- Bhutto, PBSPublic Broadcasting ServiceThe Public Broadcasting Service is an American non-profit public broadcasting television network with 354 member TV stations in the United States which hold collective ownership. Its headquarters is in Arlington, Virginia....
Independent LensIndependent LensAiring weekly on PBS through ITVS, the Emmy Award-winning series Independent Lens introduces new drama and documentary films made by independent filmmakers. Past seasons of Independent Lens have been presented by hosts Angela Bassett, Don Cheadle, Susan Sarandon, Edie Falco, Terrence Howard, Maggie...
2011 documentary film
Media coverage
- The death of Benazir Bhutto from BBC NewsBBC NewsBBC News is the department of the British Broadcasting Corporation responsible for the gathering and broadcasting of news and current affairs. The department is the world's largest broadcast news organisation and generates about 120 hours of radio and television output each day, as well as online...
- Returning to Benazir (2008) from Dawn (Pakistan)Dawn (newspaper)Dawn is Pakistan's oldest and most widely read English-language newspaper. One of the country's two largest English-language dailies, it is the flagship of the Dawn Group of Newspapers, published by Pakistan Herald Publications, which also owns the Herald, a magazine, the evening paper The Star and...
- Life in Pictures 1953–2007, Inside Bhutto's 'Prison' Photo Essay and The Aftermath of an Assassination from TimeTime (magazine)Time is an American news magazine. A European edition is published from London. Time Europe covers the Middle East, Africa and, since 2003, Latin America. An Asian edition is based in Hong Kong...
- Photo Diary of Benazir Bhutto from AOLAOLAOL Inc. is an American global Internet services and media company. AOL is headquartered at 770 Broadway in New York. Founded in 1983 as Control Video Corporation, it has franchised its services to companies in several nations around the world or set up international versions of its services...
- Benazir Bhutto 3-part interview on Indian Television
- The assassination of Benazir Bhutto – responses at The Immanent FrameThe Immanent FrameThe Immanent Frame is a collective on secularism, religion, and the public sphere. Established in conjunction with projects on at the Social Science Research Council , an independent not-for-profit research organization founded in 1923 and located in New York City, it is the first SSRC blog to...
, a blog hosted by the Social Science Research CouncilSocial Science Research CouncilThe Social Science Research Council is a U.S.-based independent nonprofit organization dedicated to advancing research in the social sciences and related disciplines... - Fatima Bhutto discusses Benazir Bhutto's legacy in a podcast
- Remembering Benazir Bhutto from Daily News (Sri Lanka) 27 December 2008
- Pakistan remembers Benazir Bhutto In Pics from Arabian BusinessArabian BusinessArabian Business is the Middle East's best selling weekly business magazine. The magazine focuses on the English and Arabic speaking communities and is published in both languages.-Arabian Business:Arabian Business is audited by BPA Worldwide...
- Or Zanjeer Toot Gaie Collection of Articles, Columns, and Essays on the Life and Death of Benazir Bhutto Shaheed
Articles
- The Political Situation in Pakistan (audio) – Benazir Bhutto on Capitol Hill in September 2007
- News & Videos about Benazir Bhutto CNN, 2007
- Timeline shows conflicting reports on cause of Bhutto's death, 2007
- In pictures: Bhutto laid to rest, BBC News, 28 December 2007
- Life in pictures: Benazir Bhutto, BBC News, 27 December 2007
- Bhutto murder: the key questions 31 December 2007
- Medical report of Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto, Washington PostThe Washington PostThe Washington Post is Washington, D.C.'s largest newspaper and its oldest still-existing paper, founded in 1877. Located in the capital of the United States, The Post has a particular emphasis on national politics. D.C., Maryland, and Virginia editions are printed for daily circulation...
(27 December 2007) - Facts on Pakistan's ex-PM Benazir Bhutto 31 December 2007
- Bhutto's deadly legacy from the International Herald TribuneInternational Herald TribuneThe International Herald Tribune is a widely read English language international newspaper. It combines the resources of its own correspondents with those of The New York Times and is printed at 38 sites throughout the world, for sale in more than 160 countries and territories...
, 4 January 2008
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