The untimely death of Benazir Bhutto at the hands of a suicide bomber is but one violent chapter in the rocky road of the Bhutto family.
Benazir Bhutto was born on the 21st of June, 1953 in Karachi. 
After completing her early education in Pakistan, she went to the United States where she attended Radcliffe College, and then Harvard University, where she obtained a Bachelor of Arts degree cum laude in comparative government. She later went to the UK where she studied Philosophy, Politics, and Economics at Oxford and a course in International Law and Diplomacy.
Although her family were wealthy landowners in southern Pakistan the calling of the family lay in politics.
Her father, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto became Pakistan's leader in 1977. But it was a short-lived chapter for him. In 1979 he was deposed in a military coup by General Zia-ul Haq and executed at the Rawalpindi Central Jail.
This thrust Benazir Bhutto into Pakistan’s politics.
Despite being under house arrest in Pakistan during military rule and later, political exile in England, Ms Bhutto was able to lead mass rallies on her return to Pakistan, emerging as the first woman to lead a modern Muslim nation when he party won in elections in 1988.
The two-time prime minister of Pakistan was dogged by accusations of corruption which brought down her government each time.
Many commentators believed that the downfall of Ms Bhutto's government was accelerated by her husband Asif Zardari who appointed to the Bhutto Cabinet in 1996. During both her stints in power, Zardari, was accused by various Pakistani governments of stealing millions of dollars from state coffers.
Ms Bhutto agreed to a traditional arranged marriage in 1987 to Zardari with whom she had three children.
She had two brothers who were less influential in Pakistani politics, and their deaths in the 1980’s and 90’s left Benazir Bhutto as the last remaining bearer of the Bhutto political legacy. |
