Benazir Bhutto

Passions

Vocation

Family

Pakistani politician, the first woman leader of the Islamic world. She was the daughter of Ali Bhutto who ruled Pakistan in the '70s. Her dad was overthrown by General Zia in 1977 and executed two years later. The young woman was educated in Harvard and Oxford before entering politics in 1988 while carrying her first child (of three). Her son Bilawal was born 9/21/1988 and she won the national elections on 11/16/1988, taking the oath of office as P.M. on December 2nd, at age 35. On 8/06/1990, Bhutto and her entire cabinet were dismissed by the President on charges of rampant corruption. She continued to engage the political arena, becoming leader of the opposition Peoples' Party of Pakistan, holding a seat in Parliament. After having been twice elected prime minister and twice dismissed for alleged corruption and incompetence, she was found guilty for a third time on 4/15/1999. Her husband, Senator Asif Ali Zardari, was also convicted of taking kickbacks from a Swiss company. The couple was fined $8.6 million. In late 2007 she re-entered Pakistan hoping to take political power away from Musharraf in the upcoming elections. Violence accompanied her homecoming on October 18, 2007 but did not deter her. She was placed under house arrest but was freed in mid-November. On December 27, 2007, Bhutto was getting into her car after a political rally when bullets let loose at close range. She was brought to a hospital and died on December 27, 2007 at about 6:16 PM local time in a Rawalpindi, Pakistan hospital. The assassin subsequently blew himself up, killing 20 others. Her mother Nusrat survived her but died on October 23, 2011 in Dubai. She had been suffering from Alzheimer's and cancer. Link to Wikipedia biography