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In Life, Bhutto Played Many Roles

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By MATTHEW PENNINGTON and JERRY SCHWARTZ, The Associated Press

Published: December 28, 2007

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan - Benazir Bhutto was many things: zealous guardian of her dead father's legacy, aristocratic populist, accused rogue, even one of People magazine's 50 most beautiful people.

In the end, she was a victim of roiling passions in the nation she sought to lead for a third time.

To the West, she was the appealing and glamorous face of Pakistan - a trailblazing feminist, the first woman to lead a Muslim nation in modern times - though her aura was dimmed by accusations of corruption.

To many Pakistanis, however, she was a leader who spoke for them, their needs and their hopes.

Even her worst critics would say that "she was a masterful politician," said Zaffar Abbas, an editor for the respected Dawn newspaper. She knew "what the people of this country wanted.

"If you asked an ordinary person what they achieved when Benazir Bhutto was in power, they would say at least she gave us a voice and she talked about us and our problems. That was her real achievement."

Her life was a sprawling epic. Her father, Pakistan's president and then prime minister, was hanged; one brother died mysteriously, the other in a shootout. She spent five years imprisoned by her father's tormentors, mostly in solitary confinement, before rising twice to the office of prime minister.

She fled before her conviction on corruption charges, living abroad for eight years. She could have lived there comfortably, far from the cauldron of Pakistani politics, but chose not to do so. When she returned in October to marshal opposition to President Pervez Musharraf, a suicide attacker targeted her homecoming parade in Karachi. More than 140 people died.

The 54-year-old Bhutto escaped injury. "We will not be deterred," she said then.

On the campaign trail, she celebrated her survival. "Bhutto is alive! Bhutto is alive! Bhutto is alive!" she shouted at a rally in December.

Like the Nehru-Gandhi family that long has been a force in the politics of neighboring India, the Bhuttos have held a central role in Pakistan for nearly a half century.

Benazir's father, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, was the son of a wealthy landowning family in southern Pakistan and founder of the Pakistan People's Party. With a populist, pro-democracy message, he rose to power in 1971.

Six years later, he was deposed by the military. In 1979, he was executed by the government of Gen. Mohammad Zia-ul Haq after his much-disputed conviction on charges of arranging the murder of the father of a political opponent.

A day before he was hanged, his daughter visited him in prison.

"I told him on my oath in his death cell, I would carry on his work," Bhutto would recall.

At the time and for years after, however, Benazir Bhutto could not fight for her father's cause: She was in jail or under house arrest.

The elder Bhutto had sent his daughter to study politics and government at Harvard and then at Oxford. Beautiful, charismatic and articulate, she was a dangerous opponent for the military government.

Around the world, Bhutto was a feminist heroine. In her campaigns, she advocated new services for women and opposed sexual discrimination, though few measures were adopted under her government.

In her personal life, Bhutto surprised many by agreeing to an arranged marriage in 1987 with Karachi businessman Asif Ali Zardari. She said that as the leader of a Muslim party, she was not free to marry for love, which would have "destroyed my political career," she told The New York Times in 1994.

Her marriage would play a major role in her downfall.

Over the years, the couple would be accused of charging millions of dollars in "commissions" from foreign companies. Zardari was called "Mr. 10 Percent" during Bhutto's first term because of these alleged kickbacks; in her second term, the take and the monicker were upgraded to "Mr. 40 Percent."

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