Profile of Benazir Bhutto

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Source: CCTV.com | 12-28-2007 09:20

Let's take a look at the life of the late former leader of Pakistan.

Benazir Bhutto was born on June 21st, 1953, into a wealthy landowning family. Her father, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, founded the Pakistan People's Party, or PPP.

Benazir Bhutto's government was dismissed in 1990 amid corruption allegations. (Xinhua Photo)

He became president and later prime minister of Pakistan from 1971 to 1977.

After earning degrees in politics from Harvard and Oxford Universities, she returned to Pakistan in 1977, just before the military seized power from her father. She inherited the leadership of the PPP after her father's execution in 1979.

Bhutto was first voted in as prime minister in 1988. But she was sacked by the then-president on corruption charges in 1990.

She took power again in 1993 after her successor, Nawaz Sharif, was forced to resign after a row with the president.

Bhutto was no more successful in her second term as prime minister, and Sharif was back in power by 1996.

In 1999, both Bhutto and her husband, Asif Ali Zardari, were sentenced to five years in jail.

The couple was also fined 8.6 million US dollars on charges of taking kickbacks from a Swiss company hired to fight customs fraud. A higher court later overturned the conviction.

Bhutto, who had made her husband investment minister during her period in office from 1993 to 1996, was abroad at the time of her conviction, and chose not to return to Pakistan.

In 2006, Bhutto joined the Alliance for the Restoration of Democracy with her arch-rival Sharif, but the two disagreed over strategy for dealing with President Pervez Musharraf.

Bhutto decided it was better to negotiate with Musharraf, while Sharif refused to have any dealings with the president general.

Bhutto returned to Pakistan in October 2007 from eight years of self-imposed exile after Musharraf granted her protection from prosecution in old corruption cases.

On October 19, as she was driving through Karachi, a suicide bomber struck, killing 139 supporters as well as members of her security team.

On December 26th, Bhutto vowed to fight for workers' rights as she took her campaign for the January general elections to an industrial belt near the capital.

Editor:Zhang Pengfei