MOHTARMA BENAZIR BHUTTO (Shaheed)
Former Prime Minister, Leader of the Opposition
And Chair, Pakistan People's Party
The Muslim world's first elected Prime Minister and the twice elected Prime Minister of Pakistan Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto was born on June 21, 1953 in Karachi to Pakistan's most prominent political family. She is the daughter of Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto and the granddaughter of Sir Shah Nawaz Bhutto, also a former Prime Minister. The Bhutto family played a critical part in the struggle for the independence of Pakistan and acclaimed worldwide for opposing dictatorship and oppression.
Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto studied at Harvard University in the U. S. from where she received an honorary doctorate. She also studied at Oxford University where she is an Honorary Fellow of her Colleges.
She was baptized in the fire of politics when her Father's government was overthrown in a military coup in 1977. Her Father was arrested and subsequently hanged amidst international outrage in 1979. She spent many years in jail mostly in solitary confinement.
First elected Prime Minister at the age of 35, the youngest ever elected Prime Minister, in 1988 Shaheed Benazir Bhutto has been a living icon of the battle for democracy. She is the first female Prime Minister in a Muslim Nation.
She also suffered great personal tragedies when her two brothers were killed following the judicial murder of her Father in 1985 and in 1996.
Committed to the social emancipation of her people, Benazir Bhutto eradicated illiteracy by one third in her country, eliminated polio at a time when one child in five born world wide with polio was a Pakistani, brought electricity to the poor rural villages of her country, supported women's rights and hired fifty thousand women to reduce infant mortality and help with population control. Her government introduced the digital world in Pakistan through the laying of optic fiber network in Pakistan as early as 1988.
Education
Radcliffe College, B.A., 1973; Margaret Hall, Oxford University, B.A, 1976; graduate study at Oxford in foreign service, 1976-77.
Career
Political activist with the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP), Pakistan, 1977-84; repeatedly imprisoned and kept under house arrest by the Pakistani government; political exile in London, England, 1984-86; returned to Pakistan in April, 1986; Pakistan Peoples Party, Karachi, Pakistan co-chair, beginning in 1986.
General Zia's death in a mysterious airplane crash in August of 1988 instantly thrust Bhutto to political center stage. In November, she led the PPP to victory in the first Pakistani elections in eleven years. Sworn into office as Prime Minister the following month, Bhutto acted quickly to release Zia's political prisoners and guaranteed basic civil and political freedom.
On August 6, 1990, after having been in office for less than half of her tenure, her government was dismissed unconstitutionally and fresh elections called.
To ensure that her Party would not return to power, the President and the Caretaker Prime Minister filed a series of references against Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto. Her husband, Mr. Asif Ali Zardari was arrested and imprisoned on a number of trumped up charges, however none of the charges could be proved.
On October 19, 1993, Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto, was again sworn in as Prime Minister after her Party won in general elections. Once again, however, her government was dismissed in November 1996. Once again false charges were framed against her government and Mr. Asif Ali Zardari to keep her out of power. She was forced to live in exile in Dubai from where she continued the great fight for democracy even as she was chased and hounded from court to court in Pakistan and abroad.
As a result of her relentless struggle she succeeded in convincing the leaders of the world and Pakistan for holding fair and free elections under the civilian President and withdrawal of all politically motivated cases.
After eight years in exile she returned to Pakistan on October 18th 2007 to a tumultuous welcome. Her convoy was however attacked near Karsaz in Karachi killing 179 people and injuring several hundred but she escaped miraculously because of the ring of dedicated Party workers around her. Defiant, she refused to give in and continued with the campaign for democracy, free and fair elections and fight against militancy.
On 27th December 2007 she addressed an election rally at Liaquat Bagh Rawalpindi vowing to fight militants and militancy and for free and fair elections in the country. After addressing the rally she was overwhelmed by vast welcoming multitudes that had thronged outside the venue to greet her. As soon as she popped out of the sunroof of the vehicle to respond to the cheering crowd she was mysteriously hit in the head and died instantly.
Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto (Shaheed) is the author Daughter of the East (1988), revised and updated in2007 and “Reconciliation -Islam, Democracy, and the West” published after her death among others.
An enduring legacy of Shaheed Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto is her vision of peace in the region for which she and the PPP were dubbed as ‘security risk’. She lived to see the same establishment that has been opposing normalization of relations with India finally taking a leaf from her philosophy and starting dialogue for normalization of relations and peace in the region.
The "Times" and the "Australian Magazine" (May 4, 1996) have drawn up a list of ‘The world’s 100 most powerful women’ and have included Benazir Bhutto as one of them.
Awards and Honorary Degrees
Bruno Kreisky Award of Merit in human Rights, 1988.
Honorary Phi Beta Kappa Award (1989), presented by Radcliffe College.
Highest Moroccan Award "Grand Cordon de Wissam Alaoui"
Highest French Award "Grand-croix de la Legion d’ Honneur" (1989)
The Noel Foundation Award, 1990 (UNIFEM).
The Gakushuin Honorary Award, Tokyo (1996)
Award by the Turkish Independent Industries and Businessmen Association (MUSAID) on account of providing assistance to the people of Bosnia.
Golden medal ‘Dragon of Bosnia’ awarded by President of Bosnia (1996)
Key to the city of Los Angeles, presented by the Mayor of Los Angeles (1995)
Presidential Medal, Paul Nitze School of Advanced International Science (1995)
Medal by University of California at Los Angeles (1995)
Honorary Doctorate of Law, L.L.D Harvard University (1989)
Honorary Doctorate of Law (Honoris Causa), University of Sindh (1994)
Honorary Doctorate from Mendanao State University, Philippines (1995)
Honorary Doctorate of Law (Honoris Causa), Peshawar University (1995)
Honorary Doctorate of Economics, Gakushuin University, Tokyo (1996)
Honorary Fellowship by Lady Margaret Hall, University Oxford, (1989)
Honorary Fellowship by St. Catherine’s College, University of Oxford, (1989)
Honorary Professor of the Kyrghyz State National University (1995) Kyrghyzstan
Honorary Professor of Yassavi Kazakh Turkish University, Kazakh-Turkish International Language University, Kazakhstan, 1995
Honorable Member of OHYUKAI, Alumni Association of Gakushuin, conferred by OHYUKAI Tokyo (1996)
Awarded the 2000 Millennium Medal of Honor by American Biographical Institute, Inc. in November 98
Recreated in Wax by Madam Tessaud's Wax Museum
American Academy Award for Achievement October 2000.
The World Tolerance Award 2005
Chair “Muslim Women for Human Rights and Democracy”
UN Award for Human Rights 2008.
Keynote Addresses
Joint Session of Congress (1989)
World Economic Forum at Davos, Switzerland (1994)
French National Assembly (1994)
Parliament, Republic of Ireland, (1994)
UN Conference on Population Planning, Cairo (1994)
Commission for Human Rights, Geneva (1994)
1995 Fortune Global Forum, Singapore (1995)
Princeton University, USA (1995)
School of Advanced International Studies at Johns Hopkins University (1995)
Women’s Conference, Beijing (1995)
Leadership Conferences on reinventing Indo-Pakistan relations in India and elsewhere between 1999 and 2007.