Zulfikar Ali Bhutto (5 January 1928 – 4 April 1979) was the President of Pakistan from 1971 to 1973 (succeeding Yahya Khan and preceding Fazal Ilahi Chaudhury) and Prime Minister from 1973 to 1977 (succeeding Nurul Amin and preceding Muhammad Khan Junejo). He was the first elected Prime Minister of Pakistan (and a member of the socialist Pakistan People's Party), and he was overthrown by Mohammed Zia ul-Haq in 1977 and was unjustly executed in 1979.
Biography[]
Zulfikar Ali Bhutto was born on 5 January 1928 in Larkana, Sindh, in British India (present-day Pakistan). He was educated in the University of Southern California in the United States, the University of California in Berkeley, and the University of Oxford before becoming a lawyer. He was given power as President of Pakistan in 1971 and succeeded Yahya Khan after the end of the Bangladesh Liberation War, with Khan imposing an emergency for Bhutto to have power. Bhutto was the first elected Prime Minister of Pakistan from 1973, as he left the presidency. That year, he authorized an operation to crush Baluch rebels, with a violent crackdown putting down dissent in Baluchistan. He increased ties with the Soviet Union, China, and Saudi Arabia, causing him to move Pakistan towards the Eastern Bloc during the Cold War. In 1977, the United States sanctioned a coup.
Death[]
General Mohammed Zia ul-Haq and the military declared martial law and elections were declared to take place in 90 days, and Bhutto was imprisoned. He was deposed from power, and although the death sentence as punishment for "murder" was initially waved off, Zia upheld it and Bhutto was hung in Rawalpindi jail. Zia became the new leader of Pakistan, and supported Islamism, eventually leading to the takeover of much of Pakistan by the Taliban and Muslim extremist groups after 2004.