"The Charamastic Legend-Benazir Bhutto"

"LEADERS ARE BORN NOT MADE"

Benazir Bhutto was the first woman elected to lead a Muslim country. She was Pakistan’s hope for true democracy, she had determination and vision to succeed and effects of her personality can easily be seen in her government term. Pakistan advanced very rapidly in very short time. However, conditions in Pakistan were not easy. Even though Benazir succeeded many, she had to deal with the great opposition that came from past and even now it continues.
Benazir Bhutto was born in Karachi, on 21 June 1953. In the age of 16, she left Pakistan to study at Harvard’s Radcliffe College. After completing her study at Radcliffe, she studied at Oxford University and graduated in 1977. After graduating from Oxford, she came back to her homeland, where her father, Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto, was recently elected as the prime minister. However, military detained the power and Ali Bhutto was imprisoned. In 1979, General Zia-ul Haq’s military government executed Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto( father).
During military coup, Benazir was arrested many times and captivated for three years. After her imprisonment, she was allowed to leave the country and she went to live in London. She found an underground resistance to military dictatorship according to the Achievement web site. When her brother died in 1985, she returned to Pakistan to bury her brother, but again got arrested for anarchistic conventions. After her release, she returned to London. In the following months, martial law was dismissed at the end of the year, and Benazir returned to Pakistan safely. Achievement web site points out that Benazir joined anti-Zia protests and called resignation of Zia Ul-Haq. In 1988, free elections were held and as co-chairwoman of Pakistan People’s Party, she became Prime Minister at the age of 35 and she was the first woman to work as a prime minister in an Islamic country.
Despite all, in two years, as stated in website Achievement, President Ghulam Ishaq Khan dismissed Bhutto from office because of the charges of corruptions. Although Benazir Bhutto was terminated from the office, she was re-elected as Prime Minister in 1993. While in her duty, she brought electricity to countryside and constructed many schools all over the country. She dealt with starvation, housing and health care and worked to modernize Pakistan.
However, Bhutto was dismissed from office by President Leghari of Pakistan, being accused of poor management and corruption. After forcible transfer from the office, Bhutto’s husband, Asif Ali Zardari was arrested, re-election campaign for Bhutto failed, and the military established the downfall of the next government of Nawaz Sharif. Benazir Bhutto had to leave the country for once again and she went to London to live in exile as the Achievement web site points out.
In 2007, despite the threat of Islamic extremists and the hostile government, Benazir decided to return to her homeland. She was welcomed with crowds, however her convoy was attacked. Although the attack failed on Bhutto, over hundreds of people died in the attack. In the elections in 2008, PPP (Pakistan People’s Party) chose Benazir Bhutto for elections, to be a prime minister candidate. However, in an election campaign in Rawalpindi, Pakistan, she was attacked again and unfortunately she was not lucky this time as before, this suicide attack has ended Benazir’s painful life.
In the book Benazir, l’envers du voile, Laurence Gourret states that President Leghari who dismissed Bhutto from the office expressed that the guiltiest person was Benazir’s husband (Gourret, 203); she and her husband together, consumed the resources of country, got richer every day and she was trying to overcome the Islamic Law. In the same book, it is argued that Zulfiqar Ali had chosen her as his successor in politics when she was only a teen (Gourret, 39).

 She is just a place holder for his father and her leadership is not adequate for Pakistan. These main points of opposition in Pakistan may be considered exaggerated and untrue. However, she faced great problems in her leadership period and she could not handle many problems; she should have been able to deal with her problems; instead of running away from the country in 1996. Also, Benazir Bhutto knew the situation better than everyone else and maybe she could have reconsidered being pregnant at that time, for the good of the country. As mentioned in the previous parts, her pregnancy caused opposition to act against her government.

Additionally, trying to get and win elections for the third time can be considered as a failure. Because, when she decided to leave Pakistan, she should have abandoned her political career there. She had great opposition from Al-Qaeda and mullahs, and they had threatened her for to not come back to country again. 11 years had passed and obviously nothing had changed; she was still not wanted by opposition. It would be better for anyone new to be elected from PPP as stated before in the De-democratization part; someone younger and who did not create hatred against himself/herself. Shortly, returning to Pakistan after 11 years was clearly a mistake, but a sign of true vision and determination to accomplish things she believes.    

    Although all the accusations and mistakes stated, she did great things to her country, in the means of improvement; she opened many schools, brought technology, gave many rights back to women and made roads. She may not be a great leader, but she is definitely a good one. She had very strong determination as it can be seen his life and her decisions. Also she had vision, she knew that Pakistan must advance, she brought many technologies and provided many opportunities to her people, which any military coup before her could not. Considering the political turbulence in Pakistan and the strict rules of Islamic government before her, what she has at least “tried” to accomplish can also be accepted as a success in itself.
 
Her heroic struggle to establish democratic institutions will continue to be cherished by the Pakistani people. It is even more astounding how a woman could have so much effect on Pakistan’s political, cultural, and social life in an extremely conservative male-dominated society. You need courage to stand up for your convictions, boldness to tackle enormous political and economic problems head-on, and fearlessness to answer your unreasonable and rapid critics.