Name: Benazir Bhutto

Nickname: Iron Lady of Pakistan

Famous for: Being the first female Prime Minister of Pakistan

Profession: Prime Minister (1953–2007)

Nationality: Pakistani

Political Party She Belonged to: Pakistan People's Party

Date of Birth: June 21, 1953

Died At Age: 54

Sun Sign: Gemini

Birth Place: Karachi

Father's Name: Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto

Mother's Name: Nusrat Bhutto

Siblings: Murtaza Bhutto, Sanam Bhutto, Shahnawaz Bhutto

Husband: Asif Ali Zardari (1987–2007)

Children: Aseefa Bhutto, Bakhtawar Bhutto Zardari, Bakhtwar Bhutto, Bilawal Bhutto Zardari

Religion: Islam

Death Date: December 27, 2007

Place if Death: Rawalpindi

Cause of Death: Assassination by a suicide bomber During her term as the Prime Minister from 1988 until 1990 and 1993 until 1996

Introduction

In the year 1988, Benazir Bhutto was elected as the first female Prime Minister of Pakistan. And, in 2007 she was assassinated by a suicide bomber. She was born on 21 June 1953 to Zulfikar Ali Bhutto who was a famous Politician of Pakistan and Nusrat Bhutto an ironical Public figure of Pakistan. She was born in Karachi, Pakistan. After her Father's party PPP was overthrown due to a military coup, she took over the charge and was announced as the first ever Prime Minister of this Muslim nation. After a long exile, she came back to Pakistan, but unfortunately she got assassinated by a suicide bomber.

Iron Lady of Pakistan

She has` been nicknamed as the iron lady of Pakistan for her courage to come in the frontier being a woman and that too in a Muslim country where women are merely thought of stepping out of their homes. She is the one who showed a way out for all Pakistani women to find place for the in Politics. She became the first and the only Prime Minister of Pakistan till date and not only that but she also served this significant position in her life twice. The advantage of being exposed to the political ideologies and thoughts she enjoyed from a very early age for having been born in a family that had a political background. She landed into Politics after the imprisonment of her father and his subsequent execution. In that period of time she became the head of the Pakistan people's Party that was earlier taken care of by his father Zulfikar Ali Bhutto. All her life she worked with the principles of Social and democratic capitalistic policies. It was her audacity and unaffected courage to survive in alien world where women were usually not expected gave her the title of an "Iron Lady". She was often referred to as "B.B" by her colleagues and rivals. During her two consecutive tenures as prime Minster of Pakistan she brought about several economical and Political policies for industrial growth of Pakistan. She stood firmly in favour of denationalising the state-owned corporations and also against the trade unions.

Childhood and Early Life

Benazir Bhutto was born on 21st of June 1953 to Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, former prime Minister of Pakistan and Begum Nusrat Ispahani. They were all four siblings and Benazir Bhutto was the eldest of all. Because of the profession of her father she had a great exposure to Political idea from a very young age. She completed the early years of her education in Pakistan and later on she moved to the US to study at Radcliffe College, Harvard University. She graduated in Arts in the year 1973 and from 1973 to 1977 studied international law and diplomacy at the Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford, United Kingdom. Astonishingly, she became the first Asian woman to be elected as the President of Oxford Union.

Political Career and Leader of the PPP

Benazir Bhutto came back to Pakistan in the year 1977 and was under house arrest because of the military coup (which took place under General Mohammad Zia ul-Haq) that resulted in overthrowing the leadership of her father. A year after all this in 1978, Zia ul-Haq became the President of Pakistan and her father was then convicted and hanged April 1979 for giving authority to murder of one of his opponent. And, that took the real turn in her life and she became the leader of her father's political party PPP.

After two years of taking up the leadership charge she got involved in organizing rallies against the murder charges against her father. In the year 1981, she was imprisoned in a deserted cell in Sindh Province. In the year 1984, having faced a lot of pressure, she along with her family was allowed to travel abroad for availing medical facilities.

Continuing her Political career, she became leader of PPP in exile where she worked for awareness of human rights violation and the condition of political prisoners. She returned to Pakistan in 1986 after self exile of two years and came up to launch a nationwide campaign for open election. Later in 1988, General Haq was killed in a mysterious air accident and that left a vacuum in the Political arena of Pakistan and left the need for elections. She fought the elections and her party won with high margin of seats and was elected to the Prime Ministerial positions on 2nd December 1988 and became the first female Prime Minister of Pakistan.

During her first tenure as the Prime Minister of Pakistan she could not bring magical transformation into her system. She was ousted from the position in 1990 because she could not curb corruption and was also charged with despotism and nepotism. During the period she acted as the leader of the opposition while Nawaz Sharif was elected as the Prime Minister. In 1993, after the resignation of Nawaz Sharif she was once elected as the Prime Minister of Pakistan.

Marriage and Children

She got married to Asif Ali Zardari, a weakthy landowner on 18th of December 1987 in Karachi. The couple has three children including two daughters, Bakhtawar and Aseefa and a son named Bilawal.

Assassination

She was killed in Rawalpindi when an assassin fired and then blew himself on 27th of December 2007 in Rawalpindi. In all 28 other people were killed and around 100 people got injured in the attack.