Benazir Bhutto

I was the first female to lead a post-colonial Muslim state, having been elected Prime Minister of Pakistan in 1988. I am the eldest child of deposed Pakistani premier Zulfikar Ali Bhutto and his wife, Begum Nusrat Bhutto, who was of Kurdish-Iranian origin. I studied at Oxford University and also have a degree from Harvard University. I too was deposed after 20 months of rule by then president Ghulam Ishaq Khan and charged with flagrant corruption and widespread kleptocracy. My opponent used the Eighth Amendment to dissolve parliament and force an election. I was re-elected in 1993 but was dismissed three years later amid various corruption scandals by then president Farooq Leghari, who also used the Eighth Amendment discretionary powers. The Supreme Court upheld President Leghari's dismissal by a 6-1 ruling. I repeatedly stated my intentions to return to Pakistan, and met in July of 2007 with President Musharraf in Abu Dhabi to discuss a power-sharing accord which I hoped would lead to free elections in Pakistan. I was tragically assisinated not long afterward.