Shaheed Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto Remembered on 18th Death Anniversary

Shaheed Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto – 18th Death Anniversary
ALI Imran Chattha! Nazrana Times 
 

Today, December 27, 2025, marks the 18th martyrdom anniversary of former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, one of the most iconic and polarizing figures in Pakistan’s political history.
Born on June 21, 1953, in Karachi, Benazir was the eldest child of former Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto and Begum Nusrat Bhutto. She received an elite education, studying at Harvard University and later at Oxford, where she became the first Asian woman to serve as president of the Oxford Union.
Her life took a dramatic turn after the 1977 military coup led by General Zia-ul-Haq, which deposed her father. Following Zulfikar Ali Bhutto’s execution in 1979, Benazir spent years under detention, house arrest, and eventually exile. From this personal tragedy, she emerged as the charismatic leader of the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) and a powerful symbol of resistance against military dictatorship.
In December 1988, at the age of 35, Benazir Bhutto made history by becoming the first woman to lead a democratically elected government in any Muslim-majority country — and the youngest prime minister in the Muslim world at the time. She served two non-consecutive terms: 1988–1990 and 1993–1996. During her tenures, she championed women’s rights, launched rural development and health initiatives, and pushed for modernization, though both governments ended amid political controversies and dismissals.

After nearly a decade in self-imposed exile, she returned to Pakistan on October 18, 2007, amid hopes of a third term and a possible power-sharing arrangement. Tragically, on December 27, 2007, moments after addressing an election rally at Liaquat Bagh in Rawalpindi, she was assassinated in a combined gun and suicide bomb attack. The explosion killed more than 20 people and injured dozens more. The precise circumstances of her death — including the exact cause — have remained the subject of intense debate, multiple investigations, and unresolved legal proceedings even 18 years later.
Benazir Bhutto’s final resting place is the family mausoleum at Garhi Khuda Bakhsh, Larkana, Sindh — the same site where her father, mother, and two brothers are also buried. Every year on this date, thousands of supporters, party workers, and ordinary citizens gather there to pay tribute, wave the green, red, and black PPP flags, and recite Fateha.
Her most famous political maxim — “Democracy is the best revenge” — continues to resonate deeply in Pakistan’s turbulent political discourse. Whether viewed as a trailblazing democrat, a symbol of women’s empowerment, or a controversial figure entangled in allegations of corruption, Benazir Bhutto’s life and death left an indelible mark on the country.
Eighteen years after her assassination, Pakistan remembers Shaheed Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto as the daughter of democracy who paid the ultimate price for her belief in civilian rule, social justice, and the empowerment of the marginalized.