Bhutto, Benazir (1953- )

Pakistani politician. She was leader of the Pakistan People's Party (PPP) from 1984, a position she held in exile until 1986. Bhutto became prime minister of Pakistan from 1988 until 1990, when the opposition manoeuvred her from office and charged her with corruption. She returned as prime minister (1993-96), but was removed again under suspicion of corruption. In 1999, while living in self-imposed exile in London, Bhutto (and her husband, Asif Ali Zardari) was found guilty of corruption and given a five-year prison sentence, but in April 2001 Pakistan's Supreme Court quashed the convictions and ordered a retrial.

When martial law had been lifted, she returned to Pakistan in April 1986 and, after the unexpected death in August 1988 of the military dictator Mohammad Zia-ul-Haq, in an aircrash, became the first female leader of a Muslim state in November 1988. In August 1990, she was removed from office by presidential decree on charges of corruption and abuse of power. Bhutto returned to office after the October 1993 general election, following a power struggle between President Ghulam Ishaq Khan and Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif. She was removed from office in November 1996 by President Farooq Leghari, amidst increasing concern over government corruption. In November 2000, Bhutto's supporters joined with supporters of her former opponent Nawaz Sharif and 15 smaller parties to form the Alliance for the Restoration of Democracy, designed to bring an early end to military rule in Pakistan.

Born into a wealthy, feudal, land-owning family, Benazir Bhutto was educated at Harvard and Oxford universities. She returned to Pakistan in 1977 but was placed under house arrest after General Zia ul-Haq seized power from her father, Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, who was hanged in 1979. On her release she moved to the UK and became, with her mother Nusrat, the joint leader in exile of the opposition PPP until her return in 1986. During her first period as prime minister, she freed political prisoners, restored civil rights, tried to improve Pakistan's relations with India, and led her country back into the Commonwealth in 1989. She claimed the charges of corruption brought against her (and her husband) in 1990 were fabricated to persuade her to leave Pakistan and abandon politics. Her party was defeated in the October 1990 general election. In her second period as prime minister, she compromised, supporting a large military budget while trying to foster greater social reform. However, in addition to the further charges of corruption, she faced a great deal of criticism from opposition parties for not curbing ethnic and religious violence, and the PPP endured a crushing defeat in the February 1997 general election. The same year, her husband was jailed, charged with murdering Benazir's estranged brother, Murtaza, and the government secured the freezing of four Swiss bank accounts belonging to Benazir Bhutto's family members with funds reputedly exceeding US$50 million. In August 1998, a Swiss judge asked for Bhutto to be indicted on money-laundering charges.