Benazir Bhutto

Following her return to Pakistan, while campaigning for the parliamentary elections, she was assassinated on December 27, 2007. She was leaving for the campaign rally for PPP at Liaquat National Bagh, when she was shot by a gunman while she waved the crowd through the sunroof of her car. Subsequently, explosives were detonated near the vehicle killing approximately 20 people

She was taken to Rawalpindi General Hospital where she was declared dead by evening. A three-day period of mourning was declared by President Pervez Musharraf.

Benazir Bhutto was born to Zulfikar Ali Bhutto and Begum Nusrat Ispahani. She was the eldest of the four siblings. Her father was the former prime minister of Pakistan. As such, since young, she was exposed to political ideas and policies.

She completed her early education from Pakistan and went to US to enrol herself at Radcliffe College, Harvard University. In 1973, she graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree with cum laude honours in comparative government.

From 1973 until 1977, she studied philosophy, politics and economics at Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford, United Kingdom.

In 1976, she became the first Asian woman to be elected as the President of Oxford Union.

Upon her return to Pakistan in 1977, she along with her family was placed under house arrest following the dethronement of her father Zulfikar Ali Bhutto from the prime ministership and the emergence of General Mohammad Zia ul-Haq to power.

She inherited the leadership of her father’s political party, Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) and spent the next two years organizing rally to force General Haq to drop murder charges against her father.

Against local plea and international pressure, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto was hanged on April 1979, following which she was arrested and moved to Larkana Central Jail. In 1981, she was imprisoned in a desert cell in Sindh Province.

Succumbing to immense international pressure, she along with her family was allowed to travel abroad in 1984 for medical aid. Following her recuperation, she resumed her political pursuit, becoming a leader in exile for PPP, raising awareness of the state of political prisoners and human right violation under Zia regime.

In 1986, she returned to Pakistan after two years of self-exile upon the lifting of the martial law and launched a nationwide campaign for open elections.

Posthumously, she was named one of seven winners of the United Nations Prize in the Field of Human Rights.