She was glamorous & clever but she was also "the diva of corruption".
As a jet- setting, western- educated woman, Benazir Bhutto had powerful enemies.
High-flier: Benazir Bhutto was president of the Oxford Union (left) & Prime Minister of Pakistan.
Oxford University where she once threw, the best parties and drove a yellow MG.
"When she stood for the presidency of the Oxford Union, she skilfully used the rumours about her un-Islamic activities to flutter her eyelashes at the male voters.
"At the same time she rallied the feminists with the suggestion that she would be held back by the male chauvinists and reactionaries - even though they were the kind of men with whom she enjoyed her leisure time."
At her first attempt for the presidency Bhutto came third. But after graduating in 1976 with a second in politics, philosophy and economics she stood again and won.
She was the first Asian female to hold the position in the Union's history.
When her term ended in 1977 she returned to Pakistan after eight years living away. By then her Prime Minister Father, rule was in crisis.
The end came when soldiers, following the orders of the army commander General Mohammed Zia-ul-Haq, stormed the Bhutto family residence one morning. Martial law was imposed and Bhutto senior was charged with plotting to kill a political rival.
In spite of an international outcry he was hanged in 1979, in Rawalpindi. A few months later Benazir, who with her mother had taken over the leadership of her father's ‘Peoples Party’, was charged with offences under martial law.
She spent much of the next six years in sweltering prisons or under house arrest. Her health failing, she was eventually allowed to seek medical treatment in England, where she lived in exile until her return in 1986, when two million lined the streets of Lahore to greet her.
With her, for the time being at least, died the dynastic ambitions of a family which has dominated Pakistani politics for a decade, in the way that the Kennedys and Nehru-Gandhis bestrode the United States and India.
And like those other clans, power for the Bhuttos came hand in hand with tragedy. Benazir’s father was hanged due to his flawed political ambitions. Her brother Shah Nawaz had been found poisoned in his Cannes flat. The killer was never caught, though political motives were suspected. Her another brother Murtaza Bhutto was also assassinated, the whole world knows Zardari was behind this but in this case also, no one got caught & she know about her husband’s involvement in this assassination, all from the beginning but she did nothing.
She survived by her three children and husband Asif Ali Zardari, who was known as "Mr. Ten Per Cent" for the allegedly corrupt deals he cut while serving in his wife's governments.
As a jet- setting, western- educated woman, Benazir Bhutto had powerful enemies.
High-flier: Benazir Bhutto was president of the Oxford Union (left) & Prime Minister of Pakistan.
Oxford University where she once threw, the best parties and drove a yellow MG.
"When she stood for the presidency of the Oxford Union, she skilfully used the rumours about her un-Islamic activities to flutter her eyelashes at the male voters.
"At the same time she rallied the feminists with the suggestion that she would be held back by the male chauvinists and reactionaries - even though they were the kind of men with whom she enjoyed her leisure time."
At her first attempt for the presidency Bhutto came third. But after graduating in 1976 with a second in politics, philosophy and economics she stood again and won.
She was the first Asian female to hold the position in the Union's history.
When her term ended in 1977 she returned to Pakistan after eight years living away. By then her Prime Minister Father, rule was in crisis.
The end came when soldiers, following the orders of the army commander General Mohammed Zia-ul-Haq, stormed the Bhutto family residence one morning. Martial law was imposed and Bhutto senior was charged with plotting to kill a political rival.
In spite of an international outcry he was hanged in 1979, in Rawalpindi. A few months later Benazir, who with her mother had taken over the leadership of her father's ‘Peoples Party’, was charged with offences under martial law.
She spent much of the next six years in sweltering prisons or under house arrest. Her health failing, she was eventually allowed to seek medical treatment in England, where she lived in exile until her return in 1986, when two million lined the streets of Lahore to greet her.
With her, for the time being at least, died the dynastic ambitions of a family which has dominated Pakistani politics for a decade, in the way that the Kennedys and Nehru-Gandhis bestrode the United States and India.
And like those other clans, power for the Bhuttos came hand in hand with tragedy. Benazir’s father was hanged due to his flawed political ambitions. Her brother Shah Nawaz had been found poisoned in his Cannes flat. The killer was never caught, though political motives were suspected. Her another brother Murtaza Bhutto was also assassinated, the whole world knows Zardari was behind this but in this case also, no one got caught & she know about her husband’s involvement in this assassination, all from the beginning but she did nothing.
She survived by her three children and husband Asif Ali Zardari, who was known as "Mr. Ten Per Cent" for the allegedly corrupt deals he cut while serving in his wife's governments.
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