Benazir Bhutto was a Pakistani politician who served as the 11th and 13th prime minister of Pakistan from 1988 to 1990 and again from 1993 to 1996. In a nation with a majority of Muslims, she was the first woman to be elected to lead a democratic government. She co-chaired the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) from the early 1980s till her murder in 2007. She was a liberal and secularist in terms of ideology.
Benazir Bhutto holds the distinction of becoming the first female prime minister to be chosen by the people of a Muslim nation. However, her more than ten-year battle against General Ziaul Haq’s dictatorship came before this honor.
She initially intended to join the diplomatic corps or the media as a journalist, but circumstances forced her into politics in 1977 after her father’s government as Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto was overthrown in a coup.
She gradually took center stage in Pakistani politics through her unwavering fight against the totalitarian dictatorship and for the country’s return to democracy. She endured numerous detentions, intimidation, and pressure during this process, as well as sufferings in her body and mind to force her to give up her fight.
However, she was able to sustain those hardships and finally paved the way for the restoration of democracy in Pakistan in 1988.
Benazir Bhutto’s contribution to the democracy of Pakistan
Movement for the Restoration of Democracy
Benazir Bhutto began the fight for the restoration of democratic government in Pakistan from prison as a co-chairperson of the Pakistan People’s Party because the years that followed her father’s murder created a very tough situation for her and her family.
After some time, she was temporarily released, and at that time, a coalition for the restoration of democracy was formed. On February 6, 1981, at 70 Clifton Karachi, the leaders of the Alliance held their first formal meeting. The alliance was created and given the name Movement for the Restoration of Democracy after the leaders were decided.
The Alliance sponsored a four-point program that included:
- Ending Martial Law;
- Restoring the 1973 Constitution;
- Holding Parliamentary Elections;
- Transferring Power to Public Representatives.
Shortly after founding MRD, Benazir was again detained and imprisoned, but in 1984, as a result of international pressure, she was freed. She then left Pakistan for the UK and continued working for MRD there. She hardly stayed there for two years before being forced to leave once more after her younger brother Shah Nawaz Bhutto was killed in France. She had to return to Pakistan for her brother’s funeral.
Benazir Bhutto’s efforts for democracy
She made the decision to carry on her father’s mission at this time, and she made plans to return to Pakistan to put pressure on General Mohammed Zia-ul-Haq to reinstate democracy in the nation. “The carefree girl who initially left home in 1969 to study at Harvard had now changed into a lady with an iron will, to fight the struggle left unfinished by her father,” she said when she first arrived in Lahore on April 11, 1986.
Millions of people welcomed Benazir Bhutto at the Lahore airport.
After a prolonged battle, General Zia-ul-Haq declared the elections. This was a wise move that enabled him to appoint Junejo as Prime Minister, but it was undone when, on May 29, 1988, Zia dissolved the assemblies in accordance with article 58-2(b).
He then declared that new elections would take place on November 16, 1988. This development gave Benazir and other political parties optimism for the future of democracy, but on July 21, 1988, Gen. Zia-ul-Haq said that the elections would be held solely on a non-party basis because the PPP enjoys widespread support.
Benazir went to court and contested Gen. Zia’s nonparty-based election because she believed that doing so would bring an end to his military rule and restore democracy. She stated, “Just as a flower cannot bloom in a desert, so political parties cannot develop in a dictatorship.” On the other hand, in a dictatorship, there is no way for the political parties because history has shown that the dictators tried their best to extend their rule instead of providing opportunities for a democratic environment. In this way, democracy is essential for political parties because it allows them to operate freely without any restrictions and carry out their political activities in a good manner.
It was Benazir Bhutto, who kept up her campaign to influence public opinion for Zia’s human rights violations and the restoration of democracy for nearly thirty months.
Benazir Bhutto’s pregnancy was taken into consideration when Zia proposed the election date in order to prevent her from participating in the campaign. Zia sought to prevent Benazir from running for office.
Despite the fact that Benazir had filed a lawsuit in court opposing non-party-based elections, the court ultimately decided that they would be held on a party basis following Zia’s death. As a result, the “general elections to the National Assembly and Provincial Assemblies were held on 16th November 1988 and 19th November 1988, respectively on Party Basis.” Elections were held in Pakistan on November 16, 1988, and the PPP won the majority of the 205 seats up for election, giving them a majority in the National Assembly.
Benazir Bhutto became the first woman Prime Minister
At the age of 35, Benazir Bhutto became the first woman to hold the position of prime minister in a Muslim country when she was appointed as Pakistan’s leader.
It was at that time when the entire world’s focus was on this event. After eleven years of one-man rule, Pakistan’s transition to democracy gave hope to the millions of people who voted for Benazir Bhutto, who is regarded as a symbol of freedom and justice for the country’s underprivileged citizens.
According to Goher Jamal, “no ideology could succeed without sacrifices, and Bhutto family had given historic sacrifices for democracy and they all would be long remembered,” she spent her entire life fighting for the rights of ordinary people, democracy, a stable political system, and foreign policy, and on December 27, 2007, she was assassinated while returning from Rawalpindi’s Liaquat Bagh, where she addressed the public gathering.
