Leader of the Pakistan People's Party (PPP) from 1984 (in exile until 1986), prime minister of Pakistan 1988-90 (when the opposition manoeuvred her from office and charged her with corruption) and again from 1993. Benazir Bhutto was educated at Harvard and Oxford universities. She returned to Pakistan 1977 but was placed under house arrest after General Zia ul-Haq seized power from her father, Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto. On her release she moved to the UK and became, with her mother Nusrat (1934-...), the joint leader in exile of the opposition PPP. When martial law had been lifted, she returned to Pakistan April 1986 to launch a campaign for open elections. She became the first female leader of a Muslim state Nov 1988. In her first year in office she struck an uneasy balance with the military establishment, improved Pakistan's relations with India, and led her country back into the Commonwealth 1989. In Aug 1990, she was removed from office by presidential decree, and a caretaker government installed. Charges of corruption and abuse of power were levelled against her and her husband Asif Ali Zardari (who was also accused of mass murder, kidnapping, and extortion), and her party was defeated in the subsequent general election. Bhutto and her husband claimed that the charges were fabrications, the government's intention being to strike a deal whereby they would receive pardons on condition that they left the country and effectively abandoned politics. In May 1991 new charges (eight in all), alleging misuse of secret service funds, were brought against Bhutto. She denied all charges. Bhutto increased her political standing during 1993 as two of her erstwhile opponents, President Ghulam Ishaq Khan and Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, sought to win her support in their on-going power struggle. Both resigned in July and in Oct Bhutto was sworn in as prime minister for a second time, following her party's success in parliamentary elections.
