Benazir Bhutto Death Anniversary: Pakistan's Former PM And Prominent Politician Who Was Assassinated On December 27, 2007

Former Pakistan Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto was assassinated on December 27, 2007, in Rawalpindi during one of her political outreach programmes. Benazir Bhutto was a prominent political personality in Pakistan and played a key role in its politics in the 1980s and 1990s.

She was also the first woman to head a democratic government in the Islamic Republic of Pakistan.

She was the Prime Minister of Pakistan from 1988 to 1990 and from 1993 to 1996.

Background

Benazir Bhutto was born at Pinto's Nursing Home on June 21, 1953 in Karachi, Sindh. He was the daughter of politician and former Pakistan Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto. Her mother was Begum Nusrat Ispahani.

Bhutto was from an aristocratic landlord family and had the influence and means in the newly independent Pakistan after the country was formed following division from independent India.

Education

Bhutto studied for undergraduate degree from 1969 to 1973 at Redcliffe College at Harvard University.

Later, she also studied at Oxford University.

Personal Life

In 1987, Bhutto married Asif Ali Zardari. Their son, Bilawal Bhutto, is into active politics and is currently part of the ruling alliance in Pakistan.

Autobiography

Benazir Bhuttto had also penned her autobiography "Daughter Of the East." The book was well received by readers and people living outside Pakistan as well.

"The people of Pakistan had rejected bigotry and prejudice in electing a woman Prime Minister. It was an enormous honor and an equally enormous responsibility... I had not asked for this role; I had not asked for this mantle. But the forces of destiny and the forces of history had thrust me forward, and I felt privileged and awed," wrote Bhutto on becoming the Prime Minister.