Home Appointments Prime Minister
Prime Minister
Pakistan Government
| Appointee | Benazir Bhutto |
|---|---|
| Role | Prime Minister |
| Organisation | Pakistan Government |
| Domain | Politics |
| Start | 2 December 1988 |
| End | 6 August 1990 |
| Notes | First woman PM of a Muslim-majority country; second term 1993-1996; assassinated 2007 |
Institutional context
The Prime Minister of Pakistan is the head of government. The office in its modern form dates to Pakistan's independence in 1947, with substantial intermissions during periods of military rule. From 1947 through December 1988 every holder was male.
Career path
Benazir Bhutto (1953–2007) was the daughter of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, who served as Pakistan's President (1971–1973) and Prime Minister (1973–1977) before being deposed and executed under General Zia-ul-Haq. She was educated at Harvard's Radcliffe College and at Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford, where she became the first Asian woman to lead the Oxford Union. She led the Pakistan Peoples Party from 1979.
Appointment
Following the death of General Zia-ul-Haq in August 1988 and the November 1988 general election, Bhutto formed a coalition government and was sworn in as Prime Minister on 2 December 1988. She is the first woman to lead a Muslim-majority country in the modern era.
Tenure
Across two non-consecutive terms — 1988–1990 and 1993–1996 — she served approximately five years as Prime Minister. Both terms ended in dismissal by presidential decree on charges of corruption that were never fully adjudicated. She lived in exile from 1999 and was assassinated at a campaign rally in Rawalpindi on 27 December 2007.
Cluster context
Bhutto's 1988 appointment is the first first-woman head of government in a Muslim-majority country and an isolated Asian event between Indira Gandhi (India 1966) and the late-1990s wave of Asian first-women heads of state.