Benazir's Life: Part II

How did we get to the situation in Pakistan today?

It seems that the War on Terror was the best thing to ever happen for Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf. The alliance with the US gave him international legitimacy and solidified his power.

As the BBC describes, Musharraf awarded himself another 5 years as president in 2002 together with the power to dismiss an elected parliament. Parliamentary elections in the same year saw a hand over from military to civilian rule with the election of a civilian prime minister. Even though Musharraf had promised to relinquish his military role, he was very slow at actually doing it.

The big hullaballoo came in October 2007, when he won the support of most parilamentarians in the presidential elections.

The Supreme Court had earlier ruled that the winner could not be formally announced before it had ruled on whether General Musharraf was eligible to stand.

In early November, the general pre-empted the Supreme Court's ruling on his eligibility by imposing emergency rule and dismissing judges opposed to his candidacy, a move that received widespread condemnation in the international community. The new Supreme Court then confirmed President Musharraf's right to stand, clearing the way for him to become a civilian leader. He quit his army post soon afterwards.

Lawyers took to the streets in protest, generating such iconic photos as above, of men in western suits rioting and being beaten.

Why she came back.

Mrs. Bhutto returned to Pakistan from exile in Dubai to oppose Musharraf's actions and push for a true democracy. She called for Musharraf's resignation numerous times and urged the people to protest. On October 18th 2007, she arrived in Karachi. On her way to a homecoming rally, two bombs exploded near her motorcade, killing at least 130 people. The following is from a BBC report on her return:

When she first stepped onto Pakistani soil at Karachi airport Ms Bhutto was overcome with emotion and burst into tears.

Many PPP supporters have been bussed in from outlying areas by the party - a show of organisational strength which the ex-prime minister hopes will boost her chances of a return to power, correspondents report.

The BBC's Damian Grammaticas in Karachi says that despite being away for eight years, Ms Bhutto is still enormously popular as a scion of Pakistan's pre-eminent political dynasty.

About 20,000 troops and police have been deployed in the city to oversee Ms Bhutto's arrival amid threats by Islamist militants to assassinate both her and Gen Musharraf.

Gen Musharraf had asked Ms Bhutto to delay her return until the Supreme Court decided whether he was eligible to serve as president for another term.

During her time in Pakistan, she was placed under house arrest, and was under constant fear of attacks.

Benazir's Life: Part I

Who was Benazir Bhutto? Part I

Mrs. Bhutto was the first woman elected to lead a Muslim state. She was elected to the office of Prime Minister of Pakistan twice, the first time in 1988 and then again in 1996.

She came from a very prestigious and political family. Her father, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, was the President of Pakistan from 1971 to 1973 and the Prime Minister from 1973 to 1977. Zulfikar was executed in 1979 under the leadership of General Zia ul Haq for the charge of attempted murder.

She was educated at both Radcliffe and Harvard.

Time.com remarks that her political career was marked by "great populist spectacles and little governmental achievement". The article goes on:

However, in the final analysis, her career was an almost tawdry cycle of exile, house arrest, ascent into power and dismissal, much sound and fury and signifying little. Jailed and then exiled after her father's fall, Bhutto returned to campaign for office in 1986 after Zia's military government gave in to international pressure to slowly restore democracy. (Despite his dictatorship, Zia was a key ally of the West, supporting the Mujaheddin against the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan.)...

Zia's death in a plane crash in August 1988 helped to further loosen the military strictures around the country, and Bhutto became Prime Minister by December of that year. As a ruler, Bhutto got few favorable reviews in Pakistan. Her government passed no legislation except a budget during its first 14 months in power. Much of its energy was squandered feuding with the opposition. Among the first acts of Bhutto's party after coming to power was a campaign to bribe and threaten legislators in Punjab. The goal: to overthrow Bhutto's nemesis, Mian Nawaz Sharif, Punjab's chief minister, a wealthy industrialist and a close associate of Zia's. Worse yet, her Cabinet stank with corruption scandals, including allegations against her husband Asif Ali Zardari and her father-in-law Hakim Ali Zardari, who was chairman of the parliamentary public-accounts committee. With so much fractiousness and scandal, Bhutto's first government lasted only until August 1990, dismissed by the country's president for "horse-trading for personal gain." Soon after, in November 1990, Nawaz Sharif, campaigning on an anti-corruption platform, became Prime Minister.

Bhutto returned to power in 1993, after Sharif was felled by his own corruption scandal. "This is my victory. It is a clear and decisive victory," she declared after a bitter name-calling campaign between herself and Sharif. But despite her claims, she did not have a working majority in parliament and had to wobble through her next few years in office as head of a fractious coalition, beholden to contentious blocs of power. At the same time, Pakistan owed huge amounts to the International Monetary Fund as part of servicing its enormous $28.6 billion in foreign debts. Bhutto had raised taxes, which raised the level of discontent in the country. But even so, her government did not collect enough revenue. In an effort to appease the IMF, Bhutto gave up the finance portfolio she had held since retaking the government. "The debt servicing is breaking our backs — debt that I didn't incur," she told TIME. "But as Prime Minister, I have to pay it back." Rumors soon spread that her government would be dismissed. "Rubbish," she said. But that is exactly what happened. Soon, Nawaz Sharif was Prime Minister again.

What's this about corruption charges?

From the BBC's obituary for Mrs. Bhutto, her husband, Asif Zardari, was accused of stealing millions from the state. Many speculated that the downfall of her government was the alleged greed of her husband. Even though none of the 18 charges against him could be proved over the 10 years spent in court, he nonetheless spent 8 years in prison.

Mrs. Bhutto herself was charged with 5 corruption cases, none of which she was ever convicted, and finally amnestied in October 2007. She was convicted, however, of failing to appear before the Supreme Court in 1999, but this conviction was later overturned.

Soon after the conviction, audiotapes of conversations between the judge and some top aides of then Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif were discovered that showed that the judge had been under pressure to convict.


Ms Bhutto left Pakistan in 1999 to live abroad, but questions about her and her husband's wealth continued to dog her.

She appealed against a conviction in the Swiss courts for money-laundering.

During her years outside Pakistan, Ms Bhutto lived with her three children in Dubai, where she was joined by her husband after he was freed in 2004.

What's up with all the deaths in her family?

As mentioned above, her father was executed in 1979. But her two brothers, Murtaza and Shahnawaz, were also assasinated. BBC reports:

Her brother, Murtaza - who was once expected to play the role of party leader - fled to the then-communist Afghanistan after his father's fall.

From there, and various Middle Eastern capitals, he mounted a campaign against Pakistan's military government with a militant group called al-Zulfikar.

He won elections from exile in 1993 and became a provincial legislator, returning home soon afterwards, only to be shot dead under mysterious circumstances in 1996.

Benazir's other brother, Shahnawaz - also politically active but in less violent ways than Murtaza - was found dead in his French Riviera apartment in 1985.