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Benazir Bhutto 
studied at Oxford
University, 
encouraged by 
her father. She 
was elected 
President of the 
Oxford Union in 
1975, and she 
seemed to be
heading for a
successful, but 
unremarkable 
career in the 
Pakistani
foreign service
#
At the end of the British Raj in India, the Indian National Congress and Jinnah's Muslim
League had agreed to partition the subcontinent. The Muslim provinces of Punjab
and Bengal became independent in 1947 as West and East Pakistan
#
In 1971 a border 
war erupted 
between India 
and Pakistan, and
a refugee crisis
ensued after
Pakistan's army
put down an
uprising by 
Bengalis in East
Pakistan. In the
wake of the war,
East Pakistan split
away to become 
Bangladesh, and 
Benazir's father 
took over as the
president of the
new Pakistan
#
Prime Minister 
Bhutto was 
overthrown and 
arrested by army 
chief General Zia 
ul-Huq in 1977. 
Within a few 
months Benazir 
was also interned. 
She spent the 
next five years in 
prison or under 
house arrest
#
Within weeks of 
being ousted as 
Prime Minister, 
Ali Bhutto had 
been arrested 
and charged with 
the murder of a 
political opponent.
He was executed
on the orders of
General Zia, and
Benazir took over
as leader of her
father's Pakistan
People's Party
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In 1986 Bhutto 
returned to 
Pakistan after 
two years exile
in Great Britain.
Greeted by cheer-
ing crowds, she 
demanded free 
and fair elections, 
but she under-
estimated Zia's 
determination to 
hold onto power. 
She was arrested 
after a political 
rally held in 
defiance of a 
government ban
#
President Zia's 
four years as 
ruler of Pakistan 
did not deliver 
democracy, but 
some felt that it 
was enough that 
he had offered 
stability. But he 
had many 
enemies, and 
when he was 
killed rumours of 
assassination 
abounded
#
Bhutto was often 
the only woman 
to be seen at 
her rallies in
the election
campaign of 1988, 
following Zia's 
death. Bhutto's 
charisma and 
promises of 
reform brought 
her victory at the 
polls and saw her 
sworn in as the 
first woman 
leader of a 
Muslim state
#
As prime 
minister, Bhutto
was placed under 
constant pressure
by Islamic 
fundamentalists. 
Although she 
came to power 
promising greater 
equality for 
women, the 
objections of the 
Islamic lobby 
halted progress
#
Pakistan was 
plunged into a 
new crisis when 
Bhutto was forced 
to leave office 
after she was 
accused of 
corruption and 
incompetence
#
In its entire 
history, Pakistan 
has only had 
three free 
elections, and all 
of them were 
won by the 
Pakistan Peoples' 
Party, led first 
by Zulfikar Ali
Bhutto, then by
his daughter
Benazir
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Benazir Bhutto 
was re-elected 
prime minister in 
1993, three years 
after the army 
had removed her
from office. No-one 
thought that this, 
her second stint
in government, 
would last any
longer than the
first one
#
The threatened 
hanging of a 
Christian boy 
accused of
blasphemy high-
lighted Bhutto's 
eternal dilemma. 
Personally she is 
progressive and 
liberal, but in 
order to cling to
power she has to
balance the many
political forces
at work in her
conservative 
country
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