Born in 1953 in Pakistan's Sindh province, her father, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, was the country's president in the early 1970s, before later becoming prime minister.*In 1979, she was jailed in the wake of a military coup by General Zia ul-Haq, which led to the overthrow of her father, who was later executed. *She was permitted to go to Britain in 1984, where she set up a PPP office and took over the party leadership from her mother, Begum Nusrat Bhutto. *She returned to Pakistan from London in 1986 and won democratic elections just two years later to become Pakistan's first woman prime minister, at the age of 35. *In 1999, both Bhutto and Asif Ali Zardari, her husband, were sentenced to five years in jail and fined $8.6 million on charges of taking money from a Swiss company hired to fight customs fraud. *A higher court later overturned the conviction as biased.She insisted that all corruption charges against her were set up by political adversaries.
Return home *Bhutto had returned to Pakistan to campaign for third term as prime minister. *After vowing not to enter into an agreement with Musharraf, she aligning with long-standing political foe and fellow former prime minister Nawaz Sharif. *The PPP remains a popular choice with Pakistani voters, and there is little doubt that she was a powerful and persuasive figure, despite her protracted exile. *There is little doubt that her supporters will use her death as a rallying point, to draw her party into greater prominence.*
On December 27, a suicide bomber killed her and at least a dozen others as she campaigned for election in January. *** |