Looking Back at Benazir’s Politics on Her Birth Anniversary

Benazir Bhutto candidly admitted that her father Zulfikar Ali Bhutto’s execution pushed her into politics.

Benazir Bhutto at a media briefing.

(Photo Courtesy: Facebook/Benazir Bhutto)

(This story was first published on 21 June 2017 and has been reposted from The Quint’s archives to mark Benazir Bhutto’s birth anniversary on 21 June 2022)

In an interview with journalist Reya von Galen, on her birthday, 21 June 2007, months before she was assassinated that December, Benazir Bhutto opened up about her understanding of politics, her vision for Pakistan and her relationship with religion

In the video, Bhutto accepts that her father and former Pakistani Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto’s execution ensured that she entered politics, a path she would not have otherwise chosen for herself. She also spoke about being a woman leader in a Muslim country like Pakistan.

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Benazir, who was born in 1953, was educated at Harvard and Oxford universities. She had often expressed a desire to be away from politics, perhaps in a similar fashion to her sister Sanam Bhutto.

Benazir was assassinated in 2007 when she returned to Pakistan after a self-imposed exile in 1998. She was shot dead as she left a campaign event in Rawalpindi in December 2007.