Benazir Bhutto
Benazir Bhutto
Benazir Bhuttowas the 11th and 13th Prime Minister of Pakistan, serving two non-consecutive terms in 1988–90 and then 1993–96. A scion of the politically powerful Bhutto family, she was the eldest daughter of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, a former prime minister who founded the centre-left Pakistan Peoples Party. She was the first woman democratically elected as head of a majority Islamic nation...
NationalityPakistani
ProfessionWorld Leader
Date of Birth21 June 1953
CityKarachi, Pakistan
CountryPakistan
Given the right to a free ballot, the people would support my return.
It is one thing being able to contest an election and to give the people hope that I can be the next prime minister. It is a totally different situation where the people of Pakistan are told that the results are already taken and the leader of your choice is banned.
The people who resent me do so because I'm a woman, I'm young, and I'm a Bhutto. Well, the simple answer is, it doesn't matter that I'm a woman, it doesn't matter that I'm young, and it's a matter of pride that I'm a Bhutto.
I was a very shy girl who led an insulated life; it was only when I came to Oxford, and to Harvard before that, that suddenly I saw the power of people. I didn't know such a power existed, I saw people criticising their own president; you couldn't do that in Pakistan - you'd be thrown in prison.
The government I led gave ordinary people peace, security, dignity, and opportunity to progress.
Extremism can flourish only in an environment where basic governmental social responsibility for the welfare of the people is neglected. Political dictatorship and social hopelessness create the desperation that fuels religious extremism.
A people inspired by democracy, human rights and economic opportunity will turn their back decisively against extremism.
Whether or not the rulers allow me to take part in the elections, I will return home at any cost, not for the reason that I want to become prime minister.... (but because) I owe to the nation to fulfil my pledge I have made to it.
Pakistans future viability, stability and security lie in empowering its people and building political institutions. My goal is to prove that the fundamental battle for the hearts and minds of a generation can be accomplished only under democracy.
Democracy needs support, and the best support for democracy comes from other democracies.
Oppression does not know the meaning of provincial boundaries. Aren't our energies better spent fighting the common enemy instead of each other?
The Internet is the great equalizer.The technology which emanated from the Silicon Valley of California has more potential to ameliorate social inequality than any development in the history of the world, including the industrial revolution.
The next decade cannot be a decade of confrontation and contention. It cannot be east vs. West. It cannot be men vs. women. It cannot be Islam vs. Christianity. That is what the enemies of dialogue want.
I've never had a bank account in Switzerland since 1984. Why would the Swiss do this to me? Maybe the Swiss are trying to divert attention from the Holocaust gold scandal.