Benazir Life-Family

• Benazir Bhutto (BB) was born on 21 June 1953 to Begum Nusrat Ispahani (Iranian Kurdish
parentage). Nusrat (second wife of Bhutto) was married in September 1951, and Benazir was their
first child. Nusrat’s other children were Murtaza (born 1954), Sanam (1957), and Shahnawaz (1958).
• Benazir's first language was English; she spoke Urdu less frequently, and barely spoke the local
Sindhi language. Benazir attended schools in Karachi (Lady Jennings Nursery School and the
Convent of Jesus and Mary in Karachi and Murree)
• Benazir idolised her father, and he encouraged her educational development
• Relations between her parents were however strained during her childhood; Zulfikar embarked on
extra-marital affairs with other women, and when Nusrat objected he had her thrown out of their
house. She moved to Iran, but after Zulfikar prevented her children from joining her there, she
returned to Pakistan six months later, settling in Karachi. Throughout her life, BB never publicly
acknowledged this internal family discord of his father or her own (denial mode)
• Benazir was properly groomed, from an early age, by meeting foreign diplomats and figures who
visited ZAB including Zhou Enlai, Henry Kissinger, and Hubert Humphrey. She supported ZAB in UN
(1971) and the OIC Summit Lahore (1974). In OIC, she met all important Muslim leaders like Shah
Faisal, Moamar Qazafi, Hafiz Asad, King Hussain, Anwar Sadat etc.
 Benazir Early Life
• Benazir Bhutto was born in Karachi. Her Father a politically important and wealthy
person. He founded the PPP's and served as President and Prime Minister (1972-1977)
• Ms. Bhutto studied at Harvard University and the University of Oxford (1969-1977).
Returning to Pakistan in 1977, shortly before the military coup in which Bhutto was
tried and executed
• Benazir and her mother Nusrat took control of the PPP and led the country's
Movement for the Restoration of Democracy (1981)
• Benazir was repeatedly imprisoned by Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq's military government
and then exiled to Britain in 1984. She returned in 1986 and transformed the PPP's
socialist platform to a liberal one
• As Prime Minister, her attempts at reform were resisited by the conservative and
Islamist forces spearheaded by President Ghulam Ishaq Khan and the establishment.
She was accused of corruption and nepotism, and dismissed by Ishaq Khan in 1990. ISI
rigged the 1990 elections to ensure a victory for the Islamic Democratic Alliance (IJI),
after which Bhutto served as the Leader of the Opposition
 Benazir and Struggle against Zia
• In July 1977, ZAB was overthrown in a military coup by General Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq, the Chief of
Army Staff. Benazir believed that Zia's coup had been assisted by the US Central Intelligence Agency
(CIA). ZAB had claimed that in a 1976 meeting, Henry Kissinger had told him that the US would
make "a horrible example" of him if he did not terminate Pakistan's efforts to build a nuclear bomb
• Just before his execution, Zulfikar urged his wife and daughter to leave Pakistan, but they refused.
He was executed in April 1979
• BB and Nusrat were then imprisoned for six months and then placed under house arrest for a
further six months. They were only fully released in April 1980.
• After the coup, ZAB appointed Nusrat as co-chair of the PPP. In October 1977, Benazir was
appointed to the PPP's central committee. After ZAB's death, Benazir replaced his role in the party
• February 1981, she formally established the Movement for the Restoration of Democracy (MRD),
that brought together the PPP several political parties: the Pakistan Muslim League, Pakistan
Democratic Party, Pakistan MazdoorKisan Party, National Awami Party, QuomiMahaz-e-Azadi,
Jamiat-i-Ulema-i-Islam, and the Tahrik-i-Istiqlal
• The MRD called for a four-point programme a) end to martial law, b) restoration of the 1973
constitution c) elections, and d) transfer of power to the elected representatives. PPP however, had
 Benazir and Struggle against Zia
• While BB and PPP were creating political struggle, her brothers, Murtaza and Shahnawaz,
founded the Al Zulfikar group to carry out assassination and sabotage against Zia regime.
After 1981, Al Zulfikar PIA hijacking, Zia rearrested BB and her mother in March
• BB disapproved of the hijacking, as it strengthened Zia's hand
• She was kept for a time in Karachi before being moved to Sukkur prison and then back
again to Karachi. During much of this period, she was held in solitary confinement, and
experienced a range of health problems. In December, she was moved into house arrest,
where she would remain for two years. When Zia visited US in December 1982, the BB
supporters raised the issue of Bhutto's imprisonment with him. Under international
pressure, Zia agreed to release her, placing her on a flight to Geneva in January 1984
• From Geneva, BB proceeded to the UK, attended her medical issues and launched
political activities. In March, BB USA, where she met with media figures and middle-
ranking government officials. Over the coming few years, BB made several visits to the
United States, spoke to the European Parliament in Strasbourg, visited the Soviet Union,
and undertook the Umrah
 Benazir and Struggle against Zia
• In exile, Benazir became a rallying point for the PPP. While Murtaza believed that it was he, and not
Benazir, who was their father's political heir. He cited that he had been asked to manage his father's
Larkana constituency in the 1977 general election
• In July 1985, BB’s brother Shahnawaz died under unexplained circumstances in the French city of
Cannes. Bhutto claimed that he had been murdered by his wife, Raehana or had been killed on the
orders of Zia
• Shortly after the burial, she was arrested and detained under house arrest in Karachi until November,
at which point she was released and returned to Europe.
• In December 1985, martial law was lifted and Bhutto returns home.
• In April 1986, at Lahore she was greeted by a large crowd. Some two million people came to her rally
at Iqbal Park. She then visited Sindh, Punjab, and Balochistan, speaking to crowds and re-established
links with the MRD, taking part in a pro-democracy rally on Independence Day on 14 August
• Following the rally, she was again arrested and detained for several weeks in Landhi Jail
• She agreed to an arranged marriage; with Asif Ali Zardari. The marriage ceremony took place in
Karachi in December 1987, and was billed as the "People's Wedding", serving as a de facto political
rally.
 Benazir and Post Zia Politics
• In May 1988, Zia dissolved the assemblies and called for election in Nov.
• Bhutto and the PPP launched a legal challenge against this date
• On 17 August, Zia suddenly died when his aircraft crashed shortly after take-off from Bahawalpur
Airport. A joint U.S.–Pakistani investigation was unable to ascertain the cause of the crash
• Bhutto insisted that the PPP campaign separately from the MRD, and change election agenda
focused in favour of a free market. Many electables rushed to join PPP
• In the build-up to the election, there was a great sense of hope among liberal sectors of Pakistani
society
• The Islamic fundamentalists were against a female leader. Their propaganda stated that BB was
not morally correct
• Pro Zia and Islamic fundamentalists united to form a new political party, Islami Jamhoori Ittehad
(IJI) an ISI work. The ISI was also accused of vote rigging to secure an IJI victory
• BB led the PPP to victory in the election, taking 93 of the 205 contested seats. The IJI took only 54
seats but secured control of Punjab
• This meant that the PPP had the largest number of seats but not a clear majority
 Benazir’s 1st Government
• President Ghulam Ishaq Khan, reluctantly, asked BB to form government. Bhutto formed a coalition with the
Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) having 13 seats in National Assembly. This upset the Sindhi nationalist
faction of PPP and Sindh
• She became the Prime Minister of Pakistan on 2 December 1988. Bhutto became the first female Prime
Minister in a Muslim-majority country, as well as the youngest elected leader in the Islamic world. She was
the world's youngest Prime Minister, the youngest female Prime Minister ever elected
• In 1988, Bhutto published her autobiography, Daughter of the East
• BB's first cabinet was the largest in Pakistan's history. She appointed herself as the new treasury minister,
Nusrat Bhutto as a senior minister without portfolio, and Hakim A Zardai as Chairman of the Public
Accounts Committee. Various members of the PPP old guard, including Mumtaz Ali Bhutto, left the party in
frustration at the pro-capitalist direction she had taken
• There remained mistrust between Bhutto and the Military; many senior military figures viewed her, as a
threat to their dominant role in Pakistan's. Army Chief Aslam Beg, the ISI chief Hamid Gul, and President
Ishaq Khan had contempt for her family.
• Bhutto was able to ensure the release of a number of political prisoners detained under the Zia
government, as well as lifting the country's bans on trade unions and student associations, and removing
many of the constraints imposed on non-governmental organizations.
• She also introduced measures to lift the media censorship by dismantling the National Press Trust, but
President Khan delayed signing the documents. Trust was be broken up during her second premiership.
 Benazir 1st Government and issues
• Most serious problems of BB Premiership was high unemployment. The Pakistani government
was bankrupt, with Zia having borrowed at high interest rates to pay government wages
• Many of the policy promises of BB could not be delivered because Pakistan was unable to
finance them; she had claimed that a million new homes would be built each year and that
universal free education and healthcare would be introduced, none of which was economically
feasible for her government to deliver. Also Nawaz Sharif as leader of the opposition played very
negative role blocking all motions of the government
• BB succeeded in getting Presdients approval to change two of the country's four provincial
governors; she appointed General Tikka Khan, as the Governor of Punjab. She request to replace
the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Iftikhar Ahmed Sirohey was refused
• Punjab with 60% of population was under Zia's protégé, Nawaz Sharif, as provincial Chief
Minister
• Both Sharif and Bhutto attempted to remove the other from power, with Bhutto accusing Sharif
of having rigged the election to become Chief Minister
• In April 1989, opposition parties organized a no-confidence vote against BB, but it was defeated
by 12 votes. Bhutto claimed that this was financed with $10 million supplied by Osama bin
 BB the Foreign & Military Policies
• BB went on a number of foreign trips, enhancing her image as the first female Prime Minister
in the Islamic world. She sought to attract foreign investment and aid for Pakistan. She also
made efforts to cultivate good relationships with the leaders of Islamic countries. In 1989, she
attended the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in Kuala Lumpur, where Pakistan
was re-admitted to the Commonwealth of Nations
• As Premier, BB was reluctant to challenge the ISI's support for the Taliban in Afghanistan. In
April 1989, Gul led an invasion of Afghanistan to capture Jalalabad that failed
• BB tried to improve relations with India and announced the 1972 Simla Agreement as the basis
of future relations. She invited Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi as her guests for a three-day
visit in Islamabad following the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation summit. Rajiv
returned on a bilateral visit six months later. The two countries agreed to reduce their military
levels along the border and also not to attack their nuclear installations
• After being accused of being too soft towards India, BB took a harder line against India,
particularly on the Kashmir when she called on the United Nations to oversee the Kashmir
plebiscite originally promised in 1948. She visited a training camp for Kashmiri militants on the
Pakistani side of the border and pledged $5 million for their cause; she followed this with
further statements in support of the militant groups
 BB the Foreign & Military Policies
• In 1990, Major General Pervez Musharraf proposed a military invasion of Kargil as part of an attempt to
annexe Kashmir; Bhutto refused to back the plan, believing that the international condemnation would be
severe
• The US sent special envoy Robert Gates to the region to dissuade the Pakistanis from going to war. He could
not meet BB, who was in Yemen as part of a tour of the Gulf states—but met with President Khan, informing
him that the U.S. would not support Pakistani military action. He convinced Pakistan to step back from
hostilities and to disband the Kashmiri militant training camps in its territory
• After BB became Prime Minister, Ishaq Khan and the military never told her about Pakistan's nuclear
programme. On her trip to the United States, she told Congress that "we do not possess, nor do we intend
to make, a nuclear device“
• When she met with CIA Director William Webster, was showed her a mock-up of the Pakistani nuclear
weapon and stated his opinion that research the project it had reached a crescendo in the final years of Zia's
government. William's revelations came as a shock to Bhutto, who was unaware of how advanced Pakistan's
nuclear development had become
• The United States wanted to prevent Pakistan from creating such a device, and President George H. W. Bush
informed her that U.S. military aid to the country would cease unless Pakistan refrained from producing
nuclear bomb cores, the final step in creating the weapon.
• Between January and March 1989, she authorised cold tests of nuclear weaponry, without fissionable
material, although this did not satisfy the military authorities.
 BB the Foreign & Military Policies
• In 1990, shortly before leaving office, the American Ambassador Robert Oakley informed her that information obtained by
U.S. satellites indicated that her commitment to not produce weapons-grade uranium had been breached at the Kahuta
enrichment plant
• The ISI organised Operation Midnight Jackal, through which they used bribery and intimidation to discourage National
Assembly members from voting with the PPP. By 1990, the revelation of Midnight Jackal lessened President Khan's
influence in national politics, government and the military.
• Late in 1989, the MQM left coalition government and joined the parliamentary election. The MQM then joined other
voices in calling for a general strike in protest at BB government
• In May 1990, BB ordered the army to restore peace in Karachi and Hyderabad. Within months of Bhutto's election,
dissolution had set in among her liberal supporters. Her slim majority in the National Assembly had left her unable to
reverse many of the Islamist reforms that Zia had introduced. She did not repeal the Hudood Ordinances, which remained
in law until 2006. Her opposition to legalised abortion frustrated many Pakistani feminists
• Throughout her first term, Bhutto was criticized for being indecisive and unable to maintain control. There had been anger
that her husband Zardari had been allowed to attend cabinet meetings despite not being a member of the government. He
was also accused of receiving kickbacks and gained the nickname "Mr Ten Percent“
• The ISI had extensively spied upon Bhutto and her husband throughout her period in office. While the investigations into
his corruption were therefore politically motivated, there also was significant evidence of his guilt in this regard
• Tales of corruption in all public-sector began to surface. The unemployment and labour strikes halted and jammed the
economic wheel of the country, and Bhutto was unable to solve these issues. In August 1990, Ishaq Khan dismissed BB
government under the 8th Amendment. He claimed that this was necessary owing to her government's corruption and
inability to maintain law and order
•
 BB Leader of Opposition-1990 to
1993
• New elections were called and BB and Zardari were forbidden from leaving Pakistan. In October, Zardari was arrested on
charges of extortion
• In the 1990 general election, the PPP only secured 45 of the 217 seats. The IJI, under the leadership of Nawaz Sharif, won
a majority in the Parliament, and Sharif became Prime Minister. Bhutto became the leader of the opposition
• She attacked Sharif's every policy, highlighting his government's failings in dealing with Pakistan's problems of poverty,
unemployment, and lack of healthcare, although not also discussing her own administration's failures on those same
issues
• As dissatisfaction with Sharif's government grew, the PPP began to restore the support it had lost during Bhutto's
premiership. In November 1992, BB organised a march from Rawalpindi to Islamabad in protest at the IJI government.
She was placed under house arrest to prevent her instigating any uprisings.
• Despite an economic recovery in late 1993, the IJI government faced public unease about the direction of the country
and an industrialization that revolved around and centered only in Punjab Province. Amid protest and civil disorder in
Sindh Province following the imposition of Operation Clean-up, the IJI government lost control of the province. The
Peoples Party attacked the government's record on unemployment and industrial racism
• When Nawaz had attempted to reduce the president's powers, relations between Sharif and Ishaq Khan soured and the
PM came under pressure to resign. As tensions grew between him and the President, in April 1993 the latter dismissed
Sharif as Prime Minister, citing corruption and misadministration.
• The military formed an interim government and called a general election for October 1993. Their policies were very
similar but a clash of personalities occurred, with both parties making many promises but not explaining how they were
going to pay for them. BB promised price supports for agriculture, pledged a partnership between government and
business, and campaigned strongly for the female vote.
 BB 2nd Term as PM
• BB became the Chairperson of the PPP. This move reflected the lack of internal democracy within the party. Murtaza, who was living in
asylum in Syria, decided to take part in the forthcoming election. Bhutto did not want him to join the PPP, fearing him as a potential
challenger. Zardari was freed from prison after Bhutto returned to office in 1993.
• In the October 1993 general election, the PPP won 86 seats, although it fell short of an outright majority. Sharif's new party, the Pakistan
Muslim League (Nawaz), came second with 73 seats. The PPP performed extremely well in Sindh, and rural Punjab, while the PML-N was
strongest in industrial Punjab and the largest cities such as Karachi, Lahore and Rawalpindi. Bhutto was again prime minister, but this
time had a weaker parliamentary mandate than she had had in 1988. She was officially sworn in on 19 October 1993.
• Farooq Leghari, was nominated and duly elected to the presidency in November. During her second term, Bhutto appointed both her
husband and mother to her cabinet. The former was appointed investment minister, chief of the Intelligence Bureau, director general of
the Federal Investigation Agency, and chair of the new Environment Protection Council. She gave him a monopoly on the country's gold
imports, a post that earned him $10 million
• John Burns, a journalist from The New York Times, investigated the business transactions of Bhutto and his wife, exposing the scale of
their corruption. By 1996, their takings through these various deals were estimated at $1.5 billion. A subsequent inquiry by Pakistan's
Accountability Bureau found that in that year, Bhutto, her husband, and her mother only declared assets totaling $1.2 million, leaving
out the extensive foreign accounts and properties that they possessed. Despite their significant earnings, the couple did not pay the
amount of tax owed; between 1993 and 1994, Bhutto paid no income tax at all.
• In 1996, Transparency International ranked Pakistan as the world's second most corrupt country
• In 1993, BB declared that her family burial ground would be converted into an official mausoleum and would undergo significant
expansion. In 1995, Zardari purchased a fifteen-bedroom country house at Rockwood in Surrey
• She spent much of her second term abroad, making 24 foreign trips during its first twelve months.
• The country's financial situation left no funds for her to pursue the desired social programs; 70% of national revenues went on paying off
national debt, while much of the other 30% went on the military, which would not tolerate cuts to its budget. The 1990s had seen severe
economic problems for Pakistan; the country's economic growth had declined to between 3 and 4%, poverty rose to 33%, and the
percentage of households living in absolute poverty doubled.
 BB Foreign & Military policies
• Bhutto stated that once back in office, she asked for reasons why the Kahuta enrichment
plant had broken her command by producing weapons-grade uranium and implemented a
new system of security at the plant to provide greater oversight of the facility's scientists.
She on the other hand cooperated with North Korea on missile and nuclear cooperation
• In September 1996, the Taliban secured power in Afghanistan. Bhutto's government was
one of only three countries to recognise it as the legitimate Afghan government, a move
that further distanced it from its Western allies
• Benazir Bhutto was prime minister at a time of great racial tension in Pakistan. BB
permitted her interior minister, Naseerullah Babar, to launch Operation Blue Fox, a violent
crackdown on the MQM. By the time that the Operation was officially completed, the
government announced that 3,000 had been killed in Karachi, although the number may
have been far larger. An Amnesty International report commented that while Bhutto had
declared that her government would end human rights abuses, the use of torture, rape,
and extrajudicial killings remained common in Pakistani prisons
• During her second term, Bhutto also became increasingly open about her support for such
an economic policy, pursuing broadly similar approaches to those of Sharif.
 BB Domestic issues
• Murtaza, who flew to Pakistan in November to take up his position as the elected representative for Larkana in the
Sindh Assembly. Around ninety criminal charges had been brought against him under Zia's regime, so on arrival,
Murtaza was arrested and held for eight months in solitary confinement. He espoused a socialist platform different
from his sister's and called for internal elections within the PPP. In June 1994, he was released on bail
• In 1995, he established his own party, the PPP (Shaheed Bhutto); Murtaza focused much of his criticism on Bhutto's
husband Zardari, whom he blamed of being responsible for government corruption
• On 20 September 1996, Murtaza was ambushed by police near 70 Clifton; they opened fire, killing him and seven
others. All witnesses were taken into police custody, where two of them died. It was widely believed that the killing
had been ordered by a senior government figure.
• BB initially blamed the killing on a conspiracy against her family. She brought in Scotland Yard to investigate, partly to
quell rumours that she had ordered the killing, although the case remained unsolved
• After Murtaza's death, Bhutto re-established a relationship with her mother. After Bhutto hinted that President
Leghari had been involved in her brother's death, relations between the two broke down
• Leghari sought the backing of the Army Chief, Karamat against PM. Leghari dismissed Bhutto's government on 5
November 1996, citing the eighth amendment; as evidence, he again cited charges of corruption but also added the
suspicion that Bhutto had been involved in her brother's death
• Bhutto challenged the constitutionality of Leghari's decision, taking the issue to the Supreme Court, but they ruled in
agreement with the president. The Supreme Court's decision also resulted in the removal of all pro-Bhutto elements
from the military. Zardari tried to fly to Dubai but was arrested in Lahore, charged with money laundering and
involvement in Murtaza's murder. He remained in prison until 2004