WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.620 Welcome to the Deep Dive. Today, we're taking 00:00:02.620 --> 00:00:04.820 a necessary shortcut through one of the most, 00:00:04.879 --> 00:00:07.879 I think, astonishing and tragic political lives 00:00:07.879 --> 00:00:11.439 of the late 20th century in Azir Bhutto. It's 00:00:11.439 --> 00:00:13.820 a story that really is bookended by violence. 00:00:14.019 --> 00:00:16.760 I mean, to really understand her mandate, the 00:00:16.760 --> 00:00:18.579 sheer intensity of her life, you almost have 00:00:18.579 --> 00:00:21.420 to start at the end. Right. December 27, 2007. 00:00:22.480 --> 00:00:25.359 Roll up Indy. Exactly. She just finished this 00:00:25.359 --> 00:00:28.399 huge rally for the Pakistan People's Party at 00:00:28.399 --> 00:00:30.960 Liaquat National Bag. The sources say she was 00:00:30.960 --> 00:00:33.439 full of fire, you know, full of promise ahead 00:00:33.439 --> 00:00:35.740 of the 2008 elections. And the details of that 00:00:35.740 --> 00:00:39.719 scene are just agonizingly clear. As her bulletproof 00:00:39.719 --> 00:00:41.520 vehicle is leaving the park, she does something 00:00:41.520 --> 00:00:43.380 very characteristic of her. She stands up through 00:00:43.380 --> 00:00:45.600 the escape hatch. Yes, for that moment of connection. 00:00:45.719 --> 00:00:49.280 One last wave to these massive, adoring crowds. 00:00:49.539 --> 00:00:52.280 And that's when it all just stops. An assailant, 00:00:52.280 --> 00:00:54.500 who eyewitnesses later said was just meters away, 00:00:54.600 --> 00:00:57.640 fires three shots, then detonates a suicide vest. 00:00:57.759 --> 00:01:00.579 It was packed with ball bearings, shrapnel. It 00:01:00.579 --> 00:01:03.509 was brutal. Budo sustained fatal injuries. 22 00:01:03.509 --> 00:01:05.209 other people were killed in that attack. Yeah. 00:01:05.209 --> 00:01:06.989 It's just calculated. It really was. And that 00:01:06.989 --> 00:01:09.909 death was this shocking but maybe tragically 00:01:09.909 --> 00:01:12.290 inevitable punctuation mark on a life that was 00:01:12.290 --> 00:01:15.590 just defined by dynasty, by power, and of course, 00:01:15.590 --> 00:01:18.310 by violence. She was a stateswoman who, across 00:01:18.310 --> 00:01:21.489 two terms, first from 88 to 90, and then again 00:01:21.489 --> 00:01:24.849 from 93 to 96, she shattered one of the world's 00:01:24.849 --> 00:01:27.150 most enduring glass ceilings. The first woman 00:01:27.150 --> 00:01:29.269 ever elected to lead a democratic government 00:01:29.269 --> 00:01:32.180 in a Muslim -majority country. That achievement 00:01:32.180 --> 00:01:34.900 alone is, I mean, it is monumental. It secures 00:01:34.900 --> 00:01:37.120 her place in history. But the stack of sources 00:01:37.120 --> 00:01:39.980 you've shared, it reveals a narrative that's 00:01:39.980 --> 00:01:42.719 so much more intricate and often so contradictory. 00:01:43.400 --> 00:01:45.859 than just that one achievement suggests. And 00:01:45.859 --> 00:01:47.739 that's our deep dive mission today, isn't it? 00:01:47.780 --> 00:01:49.819 To unpack that tension, we need to go past the 00:01:49.819 --> 00:01:51.900 headlines and really try to understand the political 00:01:51.900 --> 00:01:54.200 tightrope she was forced to walk. It was a brutal 00:01:54.200 --> 00:01:56.299 balancing act. I mean, on one side, you have 00:01:56.299 --> 00:01:59.299 this global icon. She's highly educated, projecting 00:01:59.299 --> 00:02:02.900 this very Western, almost secularist image. But 00:02:02.900 --> 00:02:04.280 on the other side, she's constantly fighting 00:02:04.280 --> 00:02:07.079 against this entrenched domestic Islamic conservatism 00:02:07.079 --> 00:02:09.780 and a deeply, deeply hostile military establishment 00:02:09.780 --> 00:02:13.360 that really dominated politics. through the middle 00:02:13.360 --> 00:02:17.120 of it all the widespread corruption that at the 00:02:17.120 --> 00:02:19.379 end of the day defined both her premierships 00:02:19.379 --> 00:02:22.400 and led to her downfall exactly so this analysis 00:02:22.400 --> 00:02:25.539 it relies heavily on biographical accounts we're 00:02:25.539 --> 00:02:28.340 digging into her privileged background the intense 00:02:28.340 --> 00:02:31.020 political struggles she went through imprisonment 00:02:31.020 --> 00:02:34.199 exile her ideological shifts and that constant 00:02:34.199 --> 00:02:36.319 battle against the conservative power structures 00:02:36.319 --> 00:02:39.889 that ultimately just Well, they ensured her political 00:02:39.889 --> 00:02:42.889 life was always unstable and in the end culminated 00:02:42.889 --> 00:02:45.509 in her assassination. We're looking for the why 00:02:45.509 --> 00:02:48.090 behind the power, I suppose, and the how behind 00:02:48.090 --> 00:02:50.270 the corruption. And the legacy that remains so 00:02:50.270 --> 00:02:53.770 profoundly and violently divided in Pakistan 00:02:53.770 --> 00:02:56.449 today. OK, so let's unpack this journey. Let's 00:02:56.449 --> 00:02:57.949 start at the beginning. She was born in 1953 00:02:57.949 --> 00:03:01.289 in Karachi. And Benazir Bhutto wasn't just born 00:03:01.289 --> 00:03:03.509 into a wealthy family. She was born into the 00:03:03.509 --> 00:03:06.789 absolute pinnacle of aristocratic Pakistani political 00:03:06.789 --> 00:03:09.479 royalty. that's the critical context right there 00:03:09.479 --> 00:03:11.419 her family the buddhas they were part of the 00:03:11.419 --> 00:03:15.060 waderos this powerful landowning class a sindhi 00:03:15.060 --> 00:03:18.340 landlord's daughter and her father zulfikar ali 00:03:18.340 --> 00:03:21.479 budo was a giant figure in Pakistani history. 00:03:21.599 --> 00:03:24.199 Oh, absolutely. The architect of the country's 00:03:24.199 --> 00:03:26.800 first democratic constitution, the founding chairman 00:03:26.800 --> 00:03:29.819 of the Pakistan People's Party, the PPP, and 00:03:29.819 --> 00:03:32.500 her mother, Nusrat, came from a wealthy Persian 00:03:32.500 --> 00:03:34.860 merchant family with Kurdish descent. So you 00:03:34.860 --> 00:03:37.719 have this blend of high political office and 00:03:37.719 --> 00:03:40.460 immense aristocratic privilege. It must have 00:03:40.460 --> 00:03:43.159 created a very specific, very unique world for 00:03:43.159 --> 00:03:45.659 her as a child. It really did. Her first language 00:03:45.659 --> 00:03:48.439 was English. And her father, in an era where, 00:03:48.599 --> 00:03:50.939 let's be honest, educational opportunities for 00:03:50.939 --> 00:03:54.060 women in Pakistan were often limited, he actively 00:03:54.060 --> 00:03:56.280 championed her intellectual development. Did 00:03:56.280 --> 00:03:58.889 he see her as a successor from the start? Maybe 00:03:58.889 --> 00:04:01.250 not as the central revolutionary figure she became. 00:04:01.349 --> 00:04:03.870 I think initially the sources suggest he saw 00:04:03.870 --> 00:04:06.129 her as a potential diplomat, someone to guide 00:04:06.129 --> 00:04:07.889 his political government on the world stage. 00:04:08.189 --> 00:04:10.949 And that meant exposing her to global politics 00:04:10.949 --> 00:04:13.050 from the very beginning. The dinner table stories 00:04:13.050 --> 00:04:15.819 are incredible. I mean, can you imagine? Visiting 00:04:15.819 --> 00:04:18.980 heads of state were just normal. Chinese Premier 00:04:18.980 --> 00:04:21.939 Zhu Enlai, U .S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, 00:04:22.259 --> 00:04:24.939 Vice President Hubert Humphrey. These were regular 00:04:24.939 --> 00:04:27.800 guests. And she officially joined the PPP when 00:04:27.800 --> 00:04:30.660 she was only 13. 13 years old. So she's absorbing 00:04:30.660 --> 00:04:33.040 this at a level that's almost cellular. That 00:04:33.040 --> 00:04:36.259 kind of global exposure, that political tutelage, 00:04:36.319 --> 00:04:39.839 is just incredibly rare for any politician of 00:04:39.839 --> 00:04:42.120 that era. let alone a woman from South Asia. 00:04:42.439 --> 00:04:45.879 But did that background, this Western aristocratic 00:04:45.879 --> 00:04:49.279 upbringing, did it help or hurt her when she 00:04:49.279 --> 00:04:51.860 finally had to connect with the deeply conservative, 00:04:52.300 --> 00:04:55.480 often rural Pakistani electorate? And that is 00:04:55.480 --> 00:04:58.220 the core conflict of her entire career. On one 00:04:58.220 --> 00:05:00.620 hand, she had instant global credibility. She 00:05:00.620 --> 00:05:02.779 spoke the language of Western powers flawlessly. 00:05:02.920 --> 00:05:05.100 She was one of them, in a way. Exactly. But on 00:05:05.100 --> 00:05:06.759 the other hand, it made her deeply suspicious 00:05:06.759 --> 00:05:09.420 to the conservative Islamic elements and the 00:05:09.420 --> 00:05:11.839 entrenched feudal forces back home. They saw 00:05:11.839 --> 00:05:15.040 her as too westernized, too secular, maybe just 00:05:15.040 --> 00:05:16.800 too much of a threat to their patriarchal power 00:05:16.800 --> 00:05:19.379 structure. It's interesting because her father's 00:05:19.379 --> 00:05:23.939 famous motto for the PPP was so populist. Islam 00:05:23.939 --> 00:05:27.279 is our faith. Democracy is our policy. Socialism 00:05:27.279 --> 00:05:29.959 is our economy. All power to the people. Right. 00:05:30.060 --> 00:05:32.560 But she really only embodied the democracy and 00:05:32.560 --> 00:05:35.040 people part. Her background was a world away 00:05:35.040 --> 00:05:37.360 from the socialist ideals the party was founded 00:05:37.360 --> 00:05:39.860 on. And this worldly childhood was then deliberately 00:05:39.860 --> 00:05:42.360 cemented by this. I mean, you can only call it 00:05:42.360 --> 00:05:44.279 an intellectual foundation built at the highest 00:05:44.279 --> 00:05:46.699 levels of Western academia. She was an academic 00:05:46.699 --> 00:05:49.889 supernova. She was pushed. And she excelled. 00:05:49.889 --> 00:05:53.629 From 1969 to 1973, she's at Harvard. She started 00:05:53.629 --> 00:05:55.689 younger than usual. Her father pulled some strings. 00:05:55.889 --> 00:05:58.250 She studied comparative government, graduated 00:05:58.250 --> 00:06:01.269 cum laude. And she later described those as the 00:06:01.269 --> 00:06:03.490 happiest four years of my life. You can see why. 00:06:03.689 --> 00:06:07.259 The freedom, the intellectual stimulation. The 00:06:07.259 --> 00:06:09.899 significance of that, a woman from a Muslim majority 00:06:09.899 --> 00:06:13.420 country at Harvard in the early 1970s, you can't 00:06:13.420 --> 00:06:15.139 overstate it. She's right in the middle of Vietnam 00:06:15.139 --> 00:06:18.500 War protests, second wave feminism, liberal political 00:06:18.500 --> 00:06:21.319 thought that was completely, utterly alien to 00:06:21.319 --> 00:06:23.899 Pakistan's political reality at the time. Absolutely. 00:06:23.939 --> 00:06:26.740 And then she moves on to Oxford from 73 to 77. 00:06:27.139 --> 00:06:29.459 First at Lady Margaret Hall, studying philosophy, 00:06:29.560 --> 00:06:32.000 politics and economics, the famous PPE degree, 00:06:32.139 --> 00:06:35.379 and then international law and diplomacy. And 00:06:35.379 --> 00:06:37.620 this period has a capstone moment, one that really 00:06:37.620 --> 00:06:39.680 marks her out as a leader long before she returned 00:06:39.680 --> 00:06:43.040 home. The Oxford Union. In 1977, she becomes 00:06:43.040 --> 00:06:46.000 the first Asian woman ever elected president 00:06:46.000 --> 00:06:48.660 of the prestigious Oxford Union Debating Society. 00:06:49.000 --> 00:06:51.959 That is immense. The Oxford Union is a crucible 00:06:51.959 --> 00:06:54.420 for future prime ministers, future world leaders. 00:06:55.180 --> 00:06:58.339 What does that specific achievement really tell 00:06:58.339 --> 00:07:00.600 us about her skills at that age? It tells us 00:07:00.600 --> 00:07:03.519 she was fearless. persuasive. She had this exceptional 00:07:03.519 --> 00:07:06.240 ability to synthesize complex arguments and perform 00:07:06.240 --> 00:07:08.720 under intense pressure. These are all skills 00:07:08.720 --> 00:07:11.019 she would desperately, desperately need later 00:07:11.019 --> 00:07:13.360 in life. This wasn't just about books. It was 00:07:13.360 --> 00:07:15.660 an apprenticeship in political performance. And 00:07:15.660 --> 00:07:17.800 that apprenticeship continued even during her 00:07:17.800 --> 00:07:20.399 breaks from university. The sources highlight 00:07:20.399 --> 00:07:23.759 this fascinating early moment of diplomacy. She 00:07:23.759 --> 00:07:26.759 accompanies her father to the 1972 India -Pakistan 00:07:26.759 --> 00:07:29.509 summit in Simla. A really formative trip. Her 00:07:29.509 --> 00:07:31.910 mother was ill, so her father took Benazir instead. 00:07:32.269 --> 00:07:34.389 And she's just thrust onto the international 00:07:34.389 --> 00:07:37.769 stage, meeting Indira Gandhi. The press, both 00:07:37.769 --> 00:07:40.329 national and international, was immediately fascinated 00:07:40.329 --> 00:07:42.850 by her. And she understood the power of that 00:07:42.850 --> 00:07:44.790 symbolism right away, didn't she? Oh, instantly. 00:07:45.230 --> 00:07:48.610 She saw herself as representing a new generation, 00:07:48.949 --> 00:07:51.410 one that could maybe rise above the historical 00:07:51.410 --> 00:07:54.430 wounds of partition. How did she phrase it? She 00:07:54.430 --> 00:08:11.120 reflected on it later, saying, Wow. So even then, 00:08:11.139 --> 00:08:13.220 she's signaling that she's ready to transcend 00:08:13.220 --> 00:08:23.699 the region's historical baggage. A career in 00:08:23.699 --> 00:08:25.730 the Foreign Service. Yes. She's... literally 00:08:25.730 --> 00:08:28.170 preparing for the entrance exams, ready to serve 00:08:28.170 --> 00:08:30.949 her country as a diplomat, a civil servant, a 00:08:30.949 --> 00:08:33.370 guide to her father's government. But the universe, 00:08:33.610 --> 00:08:36.710 or maybe Pakistan's deep state, had other plans. 00:08:37.110 --> 00:08:39.509 Within weeks of her return, the entire political 00:08:39.509 --> 00:08:42.789 world she was preparing to enter just, it violently 00:08:42.789 --> 00:08:45.789 imploded, and her path was permanently, irreversibly 00:08:45.789 --> 00:08:48.509 changed from diplomat to a political martyr's 00:08:48.509 --> 00:08:51.850 heir. The life she planned for, it just vanished. 00:08:52.090 --> 00:08:56.370 July 1977. Operation Fair Play. The military 00:08:56.370 --> 00:08:59.409 coup led by General Mohammed Z. Ulhaq. And this 00:08:59.409 --> 00:09:01.389 political earthquake was just instant and total. 00:09:01.570 --> 00:09:04.830 It was. Zia didn't just oust her father. He suspended 00:09:04.830 --> 00:09:07.110 the constitution and began this rapid process 00:09:07.110 --> 00:09:09.649 of imposing Islamic fundamentalist principles. 00:09:10.169 --> 00:09:12.429 Islamization, they called it. So the transition 00:09:12.429 --> 00:09:15.009 from this political high life to absolute crisis 00:09:15.009 --> 00:09:18.289 was immediate. Absolutely immediate. Her father, 00:09:18.409 --> 00:09:20.769 Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto, was rearrested in September. 00:09:21.289 --> 00:09:23.750 He was tried under very murky circumstances for 00:09:23.750 --> 00:09:26.649 a murder that happened back in 1974. And despite 00:09:26.649 --> 00:09:29.179 worldwide appeals for clemency, He was executed 00:09:29.179 --> 00:09:32.320 by hanging in April 1979. I'm still trying to 00:09:32.320 --> 00:09:34.320 process the sheer historical weight of that, 00:09:34.379 --> 00:09:36.220 the psychological trauma. An elected prime minister 00:09:36.220 --> 00:09:38.159 executed by hanging. That's not just a political 00:09:38.159 --> 00:09:40.720 event. It feels like a dynastic curse. And that 00:09:40.720 --> 00:09:43.940 single act fundamentally changed Benazir's mandate. 00:09:44.299 --> 00:09:47.000 It transformed her father from what was, let's 00:09:47.000 --> 00:09:49.580 be fair, a complex and often controversial politician 00:09:49.580 --> 00:09:53.580 into a secular martyr for democracy. Which instantly 00:09:53.580 --> 00:09:56.539 solidified her position. It did. She became his 00:09:56.539 --> 00:09:58.840 legitimate inheritor. wasn't just ambition driving 00:09:58.840 --> 00:10:01.639 her into politics anymore. Now it was dynastic 00:10:01.639 --> 00:10:04.799 duty and a burning need for revenge against the 00:10:04.799 --> 00:10:06.679 military dictatorship that killed her father. 00:10:06.879 --> 00:10:09.759 The Bhutto dynasty demanded retribution. And 00:10:09.759 --> 00:10:11.899 she and her mother Newsrat, they took up that 00:10:11.899 --> 00:10:14.500 mantle immediately. They took control of the 00:10:14.500 --> 00:10:17.240 PPP and became the principal Democratic resistance. 00:10:17.679 --> 00:10:19.759 They co -led the formation of the Movement for 00:10:19.759 --> 00:10:22.580 the Restoration of Democracy, the MRD, in 1981. 00:10:22.960 --> 00:10:25.320 And this wasn't just the PPP. It was a broad 00:10:25.320 --> 00:10:27.860 coalition of opposition parties. Some of whom 00:10:27.860 --> 00:10:29.960 had been fierce rivals of her father. Fierce 00:10:29.960 --> 00:10:32.240 rivals. But they were all united by this four 00:10:32.240 --> 00:10:34.639 -point program. End martial law, restore the 00:10:34.639 --> 00:10:37.559 1973 Constitution, hold parliamentary elections, 00:10:37.679 --> 00:10:39.980 and transfer power back to elected representatives. 00:10:40.379 --> 00:10:42.740 It showed her political pragmatism right away. 00:10:42.990 --> 00:10:44.870 She worked with people who hated her father but 00:10:44.870 --> 00:10:48.049 hated Zia more. And that opposition came at a 00:10:48.049 --> 00:10:50.669 tremendous personal cost. I mean, the whiplash 00:10:50.669 --> 00:10:53.629 from the Oxford Union debating halls to solitary 00:10:53.629 --> 00:10:56.470 confinement in a Pakistani prison. That must 00:10:56.470 --> 00:10:59.340 have been a catastrophic mental shift. The ordeal 00:10:59.340 --> 00:11:02.600 was prolonged and physically devastating. She 00:11:02.600 --> 00:11:05.500 faced repeated arrests, extended periods of incarceration 00:11:05.500 --> 00:11:08.860 all through the late 70s and early 80s. She spent 00:11:08.860 --> 00:11:11.559 two years under house arrest and suffered through 00:11:11.559 --> 00:11:14.580 periods in solitary confinement, sometimes in 00:11:14.580 --> 00:11:17.259 Sukkur prison, later back in Karachi. What were 00:11:17.259 --> 00:11:19.700 the conditions like? They were severe. Her health 00:11:19.700 --> 00:11:21.860 deteriorated significantly. She suffered hair 00:11:21.860 --> 00:11:25.340 loss, gynecological problems, anorexia. The sources 00:11:25.340 --> 00:11:27.820 suggest she had to rely heavily on that interdisciplinary 00:11:28.139 --> 00:11:30.720 she'd honed during her academic career just to 00:11:30.720 --> 00:11:33.139 maintain her sanity. That period of suffering, 00:11:33.240 --> 00:11:35.600 of course, only reinforced her image as this 00:11:35.600 --> 00:11:38.000 defiant martyr. But what about the international 00:11:38.000 --> 00:11:40.360 pressure? That was key to her eventual release, 00:11:40.519 --> 00:11:43.059 wasn't it? It was crucial. She had a huge network 00:11:43.059 --> 00:11:45.419 of influential friends from her time at Harvard 00:11:45.419 --> 00:11:48.480 and Oxford, particularly in the US. They mobilized 00:11:48.480 --> 00:11:50.919 public and diplomatic pressure on the Zia regime. 00:11:51.000 --> 00:11:53.759 And that eventually led to her release in January 00:11:53.759 --> 00:11:56.740 1984. When she was immediately put on a plane. 00:11:56.919 --> 00:11:59.779 Straight onto a flight to Geneva, beginning her 00:11:59.779 --> 00:12:02.620 period of self -exile in the UK. We should pause 00:12:02.620 --> 00:12:05.360 here because it's vital to highlight the stark 00:12:05.360 --> 00:12:07.759 ideological contrast within the family's own 00:12:07.759 --> 00:12:10.659 resistance. While Benazir and her mother were 00:12:10.659 --> 00:12:13.440 pursuing this democratic political route, Her 00:12:13.440 --> 00:12:16.559 brothers, Murtaza and Shanawaz, they went down 00:12:16.559 --> 00:12:19.419 a completely different militant path. Yes. The 00:12:19.419 --> 00:12:21.480 family split dramatically over this. Murtaza 00:12:21.480 --> 00:12:23.799 and Shanawaz believed their father's legacy demanded 00:12:23.799 --> 00:12:27.080 immediate armed retribution. So they founded 00:12:27.080 --> 00:12:29.399 al -Zulfiqar. Which was a paramilitary group. 00:12:29.519 --> 00:12:31.639 A paramilitary group, yes. They trained members 00:12:31.639 --> 00:12:34.379 for assassinations, sabotage, anything aimed 00:12:34.379 --> 00:12:37.299 at overthrowing Zia. It was a direct ideological 00:12:37.299 --> 00:12:39.600 challenge to Benazir's strategy of democratic 00:12:39.600 --> 00:12:42.559 resistance. And their actions directly undermined 00:12:42.559 --> 00:12:44.720 it. her political position, didn't they? Catastrophically 00:12:44.720 --> 00:12:48.620 so. In 1981, al -Zulfiqar hijacked a Pakistan 00:12:48.620 --> 00:12:51.500 International Airlines flight, diverting it to 00:12:51.500 --> 00:12:54.100 Kabul. The Zia government used that as the immediate 00:12:54.100 --> 00:12:56.360 pretext to re -arrest Benazir and her mother. 00:12:56.500 --> 00:12:58.230 Even though she had nothing to do with it. She 00:12:58.230 --> 00:13:01.289 explicitly disapproved of the hijacking. She 00:13:01.289 --> 00:13:03.590 knew it only strengthened Zia's hand by painting 00:13:03.590 --> 00:13:06.090 the entire opposition as violent extremists. 00:13:06.210 --> 00:13:08.750 This tension between political struggle and militant 00:13:08.750 --> 00:13:11.429 reaction, it was a recurring tragic theme for 00:13:11.429 --> 00:13:14.389 the Budo dynasty. So she remains in exile, mostly 00:13:14.389 --> 00:13:16.970 in London, until martial law is finally lifted 00:13:16.970 --> 00:13:21.090 in December 1985. The sources describe her return 00:13:21.090 --> 00:13:24.919 in 1986 as nothing short of... Electrifying. 00:13:25.059 --> 00:13:26.960 It was a monumental event. It just confirmed 00:13:26.960 --> 00:13:30.139 her immense domestic popularity. In April 1986, 00:13:30.440 --> 00:13:32.379 she lands at Lahore Airport and she's met by 00:13:32.379 --> 00:13:34.980 crowds estimated at two million people. Two million? 00:13:35.100 --> 00:13:37.340 Two million people flooding the streets to welcome 00:13:37.340 --> 00:13:39.919 her back. She was, without any question, the 00:13:39.919 --> 00:13:42.039 face of democratic resistance to the military 00:13:42.039 --> 00:13:45.200 state. But the PPP she was now leading while 00:13:45.200 --> 00:13:47.889 it kept its populist name. was already starting 00:13:47.889 --> 00:13:49.889 to transform ideologically. What was driving 00:13:49.889 --> 00:13:52.509 that? Pragmatism. Pure pragmatism, driven by 00:13:52.509 --> 00:13:54.970 her time in exile. While she was in the UK, the 00:13:54.970 --> 00:13:57.970 global political wind had shifted. Margaret Thatcher's 00:13:57.970 --> 00:14:00.370 influence was everywhere. Right. The rise of 00:14:00.370 --> 00:14:03.490 neoliberalism. Exactly. So Benazir, recognizing 00:14:03.490 --> 00:14:05.730 the economic realities and needing to appeal 00:14:05.730 --> 00:14:08.269 to Western institutions and the Pakistani business 00:14:08.269 --> 00:14:11.570 community, she begins to shift the PPP's platform 00:14:11.570 --> 00:14:13.990 away from its traditional democratic socialism. 00:14:14.409 --> 00:14:16.820 Towards what? Towards a commitment to That's 00:14:16.820 --> 00:14:19.190 right, economics and the free market. That must 00:14:19.190 --> 00:14:21.049 have been a huge shock to the party's socialist 00:14:21.049 --> 00:14:23.870 old guard, the ones who were still fiercely loyal 00:14:23.870 --> 00:14:26.429 to her father's original vision. It caused a 00:14:26.429 --> 00:14:29.570 lot of internal friction, absolutely. But Benazir 00:14:29.570 --> 00:14:32.149 knew she had to win. And in the late 1980s, you 00:14:32.149 --> 00:14:34.049 couldn't run a government on purely socialist 00:14:34.049 --> 00:14:36.750 economics, especially not one that was inheriting 00:14:36.750 --> 00:14:39.649 a mountain of debt. She also knew she needed 00:14:39.649 --> 00:14:42.370 the right image to succeed. Which brings us directly 00:14:42.370 --> 00:14:45.710 to her arranged marriage in 1987 to Asif Ali 00:14:45.710 --> 00:14:48.620 Zardori. He came from a landowning family. but 00:14:48.620 --> 00:14:52.080 also had commercial interests. Why was this marriage 00:14:52.080 --> 00:14:54.440 considered so necessary? In that conservative 00:14:54.440 --> 00:14:56.940 political environment, an unmarried woman trying 00:14:56.940 --> 00:14:59.279 to lead the country was politically untenable. 00:14:59.460 --> 00:15:01.720 The marriage was explicitly designed to give 00:15:01.720 --> 00:15:04.220 her the necessary image of social and political 00:15:04.220 --> 00:15:07.279 respectability. And the wedding itself was just 00:15:07.279 --> 00:15:09.860 a masterstroke of political branding. A people's 00:15:09.860 --> 00:15:12.779 wedding. Yes. The ceremony in Karachi was attended 00:15:12.779 --> 00:15:16.519 by 200 ,000 people at a stadium party. It basically 00:15:16.519 --> 00:15:19.820 functioned as a massive political rally. It solidified 00:15:19.820 --> 00:15:21.639 her connection to the masses while satisfying 00:15:21.639 --> 00:15:24.519 the demands of tradition. And crucially, she 00:15:24.519 --> 00:15:27.600 kept the Budo name. The dynasty's brand had to 00:15:27.600 --> 00:15:29.940 remain front and center. It was non -negotiable. 00:15:30.120 --> 00:15:32.620 So in the run -up to the 1988 election, after 00:15:32.620 --> 00:15:35.320 Zia's death, despite her massive popularity, 00:15:35.720 --> 00:15:38.700 the opposition was relentless. The entire conservative 00:15:38.700 --> 00:15:41.940 establishment, Zia loyalists, Islamic fundamentalists, 00:15:41.960 --> 00:15:44.480 the military, they all united against her. They 00:15:44.480 --> 00:15:48.059 formed the Islami Jamhuri Idihad, the IGI, a 00:15:48.059 --> 00:15:51.240 nine -party right -wing coalition. And the propaganda 00:15:51.240 --> 00:15:54.100 against her was vicious. It was deeply personal, 00:15:54.279 --> 00:15:56.899 arguing that it was fundamentally un -Islamic 00:15:56.899 --> 00:15:59.220 for a woman to lead the country. They even ran 00:15:59.220 --> 00:16:01.460 a photo of her dancing in a Parisian nightclub 00:16:01.460 --> 00:16:04.340 during her exile to smear her character. But 00:16:04.340 --> 00:16:06.519 the opposition wasn't just political, it was 00:16:06.519 --> 00:16:09.940 institutional. This is where the ISI, the intelligence 00:16:09.940 --> 00:16:12.899 agency, really comes into play as a powerful, 00:16:13.120 --> 00:16:15.860 unelected political actor. That is the crucial 00:16:15.860 --> 00:16:18.480 context you have to grasp. The Inter -Services 00:16:18.480 --> 00:16:21.379 Intelligence, the ISI, was heavily involved in 00:16:21.379 --> 00:16:23.960 political engineering. They actively funded the 00:16:23.960 --> 00:16:26.879 IGI. They engaged in widespread rigging to try 00:16:26.879 --> 00:16:29.740 and secure a victory for them. The military establishment 00:16:29.740 --> 00:16:32.519 saw Butoh, the daughter of the man they hanged, 00:16:32.539 --> 00:16:35.059 as an existential threat to their political and 00:16:35.059 --> 00:16:37.789 economic dominance. All of that institutional 00:16:37.789 --> 00:16:40.809 interference, she led the PPP to victory. She 00:16:40.809 --> 00:16:44.389 secured 93 out of 205 contested seats. It was 00:16:44.389 --> 00:16:46.590 a plurality, not a majority, so she had to form 00:16:46.590 --> 00:16:49.370 a coalition. But what a historic, monumental 00:16:49.370 --> 00:16:53.120 achievement. It was a game changer. At 35, she 00:16:53.120 --> 00:16:55.960 became the world's youngest prime minister, the 00:16:55.960 --> 00:16:58.320 first woman to lead a modern Muslim majority 00:16:58.320 --> 00:17:01.480 government. She called it the tipping point in 00:17:01.480 --> 00:17:03.960 the debate raging in the Muslim world on the 00:17:03.960 --> 00:17:06.680 role of women in Islam. The global perception 00:17:06.680 --> 00:17:09.160 was one of immense hope for democracy. Immense 00:17:09.160 --> 00:17:11.700 hope. But the domestic reality, as we're about 00:17:11.700 --> 00:17:15.039 to see, was immediate, absolute, and crippling 00:17:15.039 --> 00:17:17.940 constraint. So she takes office in December 1988. 00:17:18.640 --> 00:17:21.140 She's just achieved this global landmark, but 00:17:21.140 --> 00:17:23.880 she's immediately hampered from day one. She 00:17:23.880 --> 00:17:26.000 has to form a coalition with the Mudahida -Kwame 00:17:26.000 --> 00:17:28.539 movement, the MQM. Which right away alienated 00:17:28.539 --> 00:17:30.940 the Sindhi nationalist faction within her own 00:17:30.940 --> 00:17:32.880 party. So she's politically weakened from the 00:17:32.880 --> 00:17:36.019 start. But the real obstacle was the constitutional 00:17:36.019 --> 00:17:38.819 framework and this constant sabotage from the 00:17:38.819 --> 00:17:40.700 military -backed establishment. Right. She was 00:17:40.700 --> 00:17:42.900 constantly battling what was informally known 00:17:42.900 --> 00:17:45.619 as the Troika. Let's define the Troika, because 00:17:45.619 --> 00:17:48.920 that was the core threat. Who were these entrenched 00:17:48.920 --> 00:17:51.119 conservative forces that were so determined to 00:17:51.119 --> 00:17:53.579 stifle her every move? Well, the three points 00:17:53.579 --> 00:17:56.099 of that triangle were President Ghulam Ishaq 00:17:56.099 --> 00:17:59.599 Khan, an old Zia loyalist, the army chief, General 00:17:59.599 --> 00:18:03.259 Aslam Beg, and the ISI chief, General Hamid Ghul. 00:18:03.680 --> 00:18:05.940 And they all held deep contempt for the Budo 00:18:05.940 --> 00:18:08.920 legacy. Deep contempt. They were determined to 00:18:08.920 --> 00:18:11.539 ensure that any civilian government remains subordinate 00:18:11.539 --> 00:18:14.920 to military interests. They saw her, with her 00:18:14.920 --> 00:18:17.940 massive populist support, as a direct challenge 00:18:17.940 --> 00:18:20.380 to the very foundation of the military state 00:18:20.380 --> 00:18:23.299 that Zia had built. And their control was cemented 00:18:23.299 --> 00:18:26.279 by a specific legal mechanism, wasn't it? The 00:18:26.279 --> 00:18:28.240 Eighth Amendment. We have to explain that because 00:18:28.240 --> 00:18:30.440 it's critical to both of her dismissals. Absolutely. 00:18:30.539 --> 00:18:33.099 The Eighth Amendment was a constitutional legacy 00:18:33.099 --> 00:18:36.700 of General Zia's military regime. It was engineered 00:18:36.700 --> 00:18:39.119 explicitly to keep the elected civilian government 00:18:39.119 --> 00:18:42.180 on a very short leash. How did it work? It granted 00:18:42.180 --> 00:18:44.220 the president, who in her first term was the 00:18:44.220 --> 00:18:47.099 hostile Ghulam Ishaq Khan, the arbitrary power 00:18:47.099 --> 00:18:50.180 to dismiss the elected prime minister and dissolve 00:18:50.180 --> 00:18:52.839 the National Assembly on really vague grounds 00:18:52.839 --> 00:18:55.880 like corruption or instability. So it's basically 00:18:55.880 --> 00:18:58.970 a loaded gun. A loaded gun pointed directly at 00:18:58.970 --> 00:19:01.769 the head of civilian democracy, and it was used 00:19:01.769 --> 00:19:04.930 to paralyze her. So she has the mandate of the 00:19:04.930 --> 00:19:08.390 people, but the real power is held by men she 00:19:08.390 --> 00:19:11.170 can't fire who have the legal ability to just 00:19:11.170 --> 00:19:14.049 end her government at any moment. That structural 00:19:14.049 --> 00:19:17.609 constraint seems... It made governing nearly 00:19:17.609 --> 00:19:20.910 impossible. She was constantly arguing with Begg, 00:19:20.930 --> 00:19:24.190 Gull, and Kahn over policy, over appointments, 00:19:24.410 --> 00:19:27.289 over oversight. She won a few small battles, 00:19:27.390 --> 00:19:29.430 like getting a couple of new provincial governors 00:19:29.430 --> 00:19:32.670 approved, but she lost the key strategic conflicts. 00:19:33.009 --> 00:19:35.329 Like what? Like replacing the Joint Chiefs of 00:19:35.329 --> 00:19:38.089 Staff, or even appointing her own finance minister. 00:19:38.759 --> 00:19:41.180 They blocked her at every turn. And this external 00:19:41.180 --> 00:19:43.779 opposition was then compounded by severe internal 00:19:43.779 --> 00:19:47.059 issues. Her administration immediately indulged 00:19:47.059 --> 00:19:49.900 in cronyism, didn't it? It did. Her first cabinet 00:19:49.900 --> 00:19:52.700 was the largest in Pakistan's history. Her mother 00:19:52.700 --> 00:19:55.140 was a senior minister without portfolio. Her 00:19:55.140 --> 00:19:57.259 father -in -law became chairman of the Parliamentary 00:19:57.259 --> 00:19:59.440 Public Accounts Committee. That must have disheartened 00:19:59.440 --> 00:20:02.400 reformers immediately, people who hoped she represented 00:20:02.400 --> 00:20:04.980 a clean break from Pakistan's entrenched systems 00:20:04.980 --> 00:20:07.750 of corruption and feudal politics. It did. It 00:20:07.750 --> 00:20:10.509 signaled business as usual. However, to be fair, 00:20:10.650 --> 00:20:12.630 it's important to note the civilian successes 00:20:12.630 --> 00:20:16.309 she did manage to achieve despite all those constraints. 00:20:16.549 --> 00:20:19.390 So what concrete policy wins did she manage to 00:20:19.390 --> 00:20:21.230 push through under that kind of intense pressure? 00:20:21.690 --> 00:20:24.750 She did achieve some significant democratic successes. 00:20:25.170 --> 00:20:27.950 She immediately lifted censorship, which was 00:20:27.950 --> 00:20:30.670 huge. She released political prisoners who had 00:20:30.670 --> 00:20:33.150 been detained under Zaya's regime. She ended 00:20:33.150 --> 00:20:35.849 the ban on trade unions and student associations. 00:20:36.009 --> 00:20:38.430 And internationally. Symbolically and internationally, 00:20:38.869 --> 00:20:41.569 she was successful in getting Pakistan readmitted 00:20:41.569 --> 00:20:44.569 to the Commonwealth of Nations. These actions 00:20:44.569 --> 00:20:47.109 marked a vital shift back toward democratic norms 00:20:47.109 --> 00:20:49.849 after years of military dictatorship. But the 00:20:49.849 --> 00:20:51.970 policy failures were... significant and often 00:20:51.970 --> 00:20:53.910 driven by the structural problems she inherited. 00:20:54.089 --> 00:20:56.789 The economy was a mess. A complete disaster. 00:20:57.269 --> 00:20:59.990 She inherited a government that was nearly bankrupt. 00:21:00.670 --> 00:21:02.710 It had borrowed heavily at high interest rates 00:21:02.710 --> 00:21:05.210 during the Zaya years. This made it economically 00:21:05.210 --> 00:21:07.549 impossible for her to finance the massive social 00:21:07.549 --> 00:21:09.670 programs she'd promised. Things like a million 00:21:09.670 --> 00:21:12.390 new homes, universal free education. Right. All 00:21:12.390 --> 00:21:15.349 those poverty alleviation schemes. The reality 00:21:15.349 --> 00:21:18.250 of the national treasury just did not match her 00:21:18.250 --> 00:21:20.529 populist rhetoric. And then there's the failure 00:21:20.529 --> 00:21:23.730 to address Zia's religious legacy, the Hudud 00:21:23.730 --> 00:21:26.549 ordinances. This is listed as a major failure. 00:21:26.569 --> 00:21:28.589 But for listeners who don't follow Pakistani 00:21:28.589 --> 00:21:32.339 law closely. What exactly were these and why 00:21:32.339 --> 00:21:34.960 couldn't you repeal them? This is a crucial area 00:21:34.960 --> 00:21:37.680 of contradiction for her. The hudud ordinances 00:21:37.680 --> 00:21:40.799 were a set of harsh, conservative Islamic laws 00:21:40.799 --> 00:21:43.779 imposed by Zia as part of his Islamization program. 00:21:44.160 --> 00:21:46.319 They dealt with issues like theft, adultery, 00:21:46.420 --> 00:21:49.359 and alcohol consumption, often prescribing punishments 00:21:49.359 --> 00:21:52.059 like lashing and stoning. They were highly discriminatory, 00:21:52.220 --> 00:21:54.420 especially against women. Exactly. And Budo had 00:21:54.420 --> 00:21:57.359 passionately vowed to abolish them. She saw them 00:21:57.359 --> 00:21:59.539 as barbaric and unfair. But she didn't touch 00:21:59.539 --> 00:22:01.839 them. During either of her premierships. Why? 00:22:02.019 --> 00:22:03.859 Because the conservative backlash would have 00:22:03.859 --> 00:22:05.700 instantly ended her government, probably far 00:22:05.700 --> 00:22:08.099 sooner than it did. The powerful religious parties, 00:22:08.220 --> 00:22:10.660 the military establishment, they stood firmly 00:22:10.660 --> 00:22:13.180 behind these laws. Any attempt to repeal them 00:22:13.180 --> 00:22:15.559 would have been painted as an attack on Islam 00:22:15.559 --> 00:22:18.000 itself. So she faced an impossible political 00:22:18.000 --> 00:22:21.759 choice. An impossible choice. Maintain power 00:22:21.759 --> 00:22:24.359 and keep the oppressive laws or try to repeal 00:22:24.359 --> 00:22:27.359 the laws and lose power immediately to the fundamentalists. 00:22:27.539 --> 00:22:31.210 She chose to maintain power. The Hudud ordinances 00:22:31.210 --> 00:22:34.990 stayed in place until 2006. Let's talk about 00:22:34.990 --> 00:22:36.809 another critical detail that really demonstrates 00:22:36.809 --> 00:22:39.670 the level of military control, nuclear policy. 00:22:39.930 --> 00:22:42.329 The sources indicate she was deliberately kept 00:22:42.329 --> 00:22:45.769 completely in the dark on Pakistan's most sensitive 00:22:45.769 --> 00:22:49.079 military program. This just shows you how absolute 00:22:49.079 --> 00:22:51.160 the Chorka's control was. I mean, think about 00:22:51.160 --> 00:22:53.240 it. She's the prime minister, a Harvard and Oxford 00:22:53.240 --> 00:22:55.720 graduate, and the military managed to completely 00:22:55.720 --> 00:22:58.660 exclude her from the nuclear file. President 00:22:58.660 --> 00:23:01.279 Khan and the military chiefs just refused to 00:23:01.279 --> 00:23:03.819 disclose anything. She later recalled having 00:23:03.819 --> 00:23:06.119 to bypass the official chain of command to speak 00:23:06.119 --> 00:23:08.660 directly with key scientists like A .Q. Khan 00:23:08.660 --> 00:23:10.940 just to get a sense of the program's status. 00:23:11.200 --> 00:23:14.059 This plays into her infamous 1989 trip to the 00:23:14.059 --> 00:23:16.359 U .S. where she made a very powerful public commitment. 00:23:16.640 --> 00:23:19.140 She told the U .S. Congress, we do not possess 00:23:19.140 --> 00:23:23.259 nor do we intend to make a nuclear device. It 00:23:23.259 --> 00:23:26.059 was a strong, reassuring statement meant to repair 00:23:26.059 --> 00:23:29.299 Pakistani -American relations. But while she 00:23:29.299 --> 00:23:31.880 was in Washington, she received a profound shock. 00:23:32.079 --> 00:23:34.700 What happened? The CIA director, William Webster, 00:23:34.779 --> 00:23:36.839 pulled her aside and showed her a mockup of the 00:23:36.839 --> 00:23:40.539 Pakistani nuclear weapon. He revealed just how 00:23:40.539 --> 00:23:42.960 sophisticated the program had become, information 00:23:42.960 --> 00:23:45.339 that she, the prime minister of the country, 00:23:45.519 --> 00:23:47.960 was completely unaware of. She must have been 00:23:47.960 --> 00:23:50.900 genuinely shocked. She was. And the U .S. immediately 00:23:50.900 --> 00:23:53.460 pressed her. President Bush told her that military 00:23:53.460 --> 00:23:55.960 aid would cease unless Pakistan stopped producing 00:23:55.960 --> 00:23:59.440 nuclear bomb cores. She authorized a few cold 00:23:59.440 --> 00:24:01.920 tests of nuclear weaponry, but even that didn't 00:24:01.920 --> 00:24:03.819 satisfy the increasingly suspicious military 00:24:03.819 --> 00:24:06.279 authorities back home. She was navigating this 00:24:06.279 --> 00:24:08.819 intense foreign relations tightrope, wasn't she? 00:24:09.099 --> 00:24:11.700 Balancing global pressure with domestic expectations. 00:24:12.180 --> 00:24:14.660 Completely. She initially warmed relations with 00:24:14.660 --> 00:24:17.460 India's Rajiv Gandhi. They agreed not to attack 00:24:17.460 --> 00:24:19.859 each other's nuclear installations, and she terminated 00:24:19.859 --> 00:24:21.940 Zia's policy of supporting Sikh separatists. 00:24:21.960 --> 00:24:24.720 And the domestic reaction. An explosion. The 00:24:24.720 --> 00:24:27.500 conservative forces accused her of being a secret 00:24:27.500 --> 00:24:30.740 Indian agent. So facing the severe criticism 00:24:30.740 --> 00:24:33.579 and the threat of internal destabilization, she 00:24:33.579 --> 00:24:36.859 pivoted fast. How dramatic was that pivot on 00:24:36.859 --> 00:24:39.700 regional relations? It was sharp. She adopted 00:24:39.700 --> 00:24:43.099 a much harder line on Kashmir. She visited training 00:24:43.099 --> 00:24:45.640 camps for pro -independence Kashmiri militants 00:24:45.640 --> 00:24:48.539 on the Pakistani side and pledged funds to their 00:24:48.539 --> 00:24:51.420 cause, actively inciting Kashmiri Muslims to 00:24:51.420 --> 00:24:53.880 rise up against Indian rule. It's a stunning 00:24:53.880 --> 00:24:56.839 display of ideological flexibility. It is. She 00:24:56.839 --> 00:24:59.759 later even called supporting proxy wars in Punjab 00:24:59.759 --> 00:25:02.200 and Kashmir the one right thing that Zia had 00:25:02.200 --> 00:25:04.799 undertaken. She was willing to compromise principle 00:25:04.799 --> 00:25:07.319 for political survival. And this relentless political 00:25:07.319 --> 00:25:09.640 maneuvering brings us back to the seed of her 00:25:09.640 --> 00:25:12.319 eventual downfall. The massive corruption surrounding 00:25:12.319 --> 00:25:15.779 her husband, Asif Ali Zardari. This surfaced 00:25:15.779 --> 00:25:18.059 almost immediately in her first term. The signs 00:25:18.059 --> 00:25:20.619 were there from day one. Zardari attended cabinet 00:25:20.619 --> 00:25:23.319 meetings despite holding no official post, and 00:25:23.319 --> 00:25:25.180 he quickly picked up that infamous nickname. 00:25:25.380 --> 00:25:29.480 Mr. 10%. Mr. 10%. The sources suggest this was 00:25:29.480 --> 00:25:32.099 a direct result of him receiving massive kickbacks 00:25:32.099 --> 00:25:35.220 on state deals. The military establishment, especially 00:25:35.220 --> 00:25:38.819 the ISI, saw this weakness and they exploited 00:25:38.819 --> 00:25:41.400 it ruthlessly. They didn't just observe the corruption, 00:25:41.519 --> 00:25:43.819 did they? They actively facilitated the lawsuits 00:25:43.819 --> 00:25:46.240 against him. They absolutely intervened. The 00:25:46.240 --> 00:25:48.720 ISI was heavily involved in spying on the couple, 00:25:48.859 --> 00:25:51.140 paying plaintiffs to file corruption suits against 00:25:51.140 --> 00:25:54.519 Zardari, manufacturing evidence. Now, while the 00:25:54.519 --> 00:25:57.160 investigations were undeniably politically motivated 00:25:57.160 --> 00:25:59.740 by the military. The tragic reality is that the 00:25:59.740 --> 00:26:02.700 evidence of his guilt and her complicity was. 00:26:03.539 --> 00:26:06.079 Regrettably, yes. And this combination of institutional 00:26:06.079 --> 00:26:09.460 sabotage, policy stumbles, and the rising tide 00:26:09.460 --> 00:26:11.859 of corruption led directly to her first dismissal. 00:26:11.859 --> 00:26:14.720 It did. The opposition, aided by ISI actions 00:26:14.720 --> 00:26:17.319 like Operation Midnight Jackal, which involved 00:26:17.319 --> 00:26:19.980 bribing and intimidating PPP parliamentarians 00:26:19.980 --> 00:26:22.599 to flip their loyalty, it weakened her coalition 00:26:22.599 --> 00:26:25.279 until it broke. And in August 1990, President 00:26:25.279 --> 00:26:27.299 Khan finally pulled the trigger. He used the 00:26:27.299 --> 00:26:29.519 Eighth Amendment. He dismissed her government. 00:26:30.009 --> 00:26:32.089 citing corruption and political instability. 00:26:32.869 --> 00:26:35.609 Zardari was arrested on extortion charges and 00:26:35.609 --> 00:26:38.950 imprisoned for three years. She was out. And 00:26:38.950 --> 00:26:42.109 Nawaz Sharif, the Zia protege, took power. So 00:26:42.109 --> 00:26:44.309 Nawaz Sharif's own government is dismissed in 00:26:44.309 --> 00:26:47.490 1993, which allows Bhutto to return to power 00:26:47.490 --> 00:26:50.369 after another election. She wins the most seats, 00:26:50.470 --> 00:26:52.930 again without a clear majority, but this time 00:26:52.930 --> 00:26:55.670 she secures a crucial political shield against 00:26:55.670 --> 00:26:57.880 that troika. She definitely learned from her 00:26:57.880 --> 00:27:00.799 past mistakes regarding the presidency. She made 00:27:00.799 --> 00:27:03.259 sure her loyalist, Farouk Lagari, was elected 00:27:03.259 --> 00:27:06.440 president in November 1993. Which theoretically 00:27:06.440 --> 00:27:08.759 removed the risk of the president arbitrarily 00:27:08.759 --> 00:27:10.500 firing her with the Eighth Amendment, like Khan 00:27:10.500 --> 00:27:13.299 had done. Theoretically, yes. That was the plan. 00:27:13.460 --> 00:27:15.460 And what about Zardari? He's released from prison 00:27:15.460 --> 00:27:17.559 as soon as she's back in power. Yes. And he's 00:27:17.559 --> 00:27:19.759 immediately appointed to multiple high level, 00:27:19.880 --> 00:27:22.319 extremely lucrative roles. He becomes investment 00:27:22.319 --> 00:27:24.759 minister, chief of the Intelligence Bureau and 00:27:24.759 --> 00:27:26.859 chair of the Environment Protection Council. 00:27:27.059 --> 00:27:29.319 This wasn't just about rewarding loyalty, was 00:27:29.319 --> 00:27:32.579 it? It was about placing him in positions where 00:27:32.579 --> 00:27:35.119 he could exert enormous financial influence. 00:27:35.339 --> 00:27:38.160 That's right. And this set the stage for the 00:27:38.160 --> 00:27:41.640 true apex of the corruption scandal. the scale 00:27:41.640 --> 00:27:43.779 of the reported financial takings during the 00:27:43.779 --> 00:27:47.670 second term, It truly tests credibility. By 1996, 00:27:48.029 --> 00:27:50.730 the couple's total illicit takings through corrupt 00:27:50.730 --> 00:27:53.589 deals were estimated to be around $1 .5 billion. 00:27:54.190 --> 00:27:57.650 $1 .5 billion. This wasn't small -time graft. 00:27:57.910 --> 00:28:01.269 This was grand -scale international exploitation 00:28:01.269 --> 00:28:03.630 of the state. We really need to give this the 00:28:03.630 --> 00:28:05.609 depth it deserves because this illustrates the 00:28:05.609 --> 00:28:08.029 immense contradiction in her legacy. What are 00:28:08.029 --> 00:28:10.730 some of the most specific, just jaw -dropping 00:28:10.730 --> 00:28:13.109 details that investigations uncovered from this 00:28:13.109 --> 00:28:16.049 period? Okay, consider these specifics. She gave 00:28:16.049 --> 00:28:19.089 Zardari a monopoly on gold imports. A monopoly? 00:28:19.349 --> 00:28:21.849 A total monopoly. A deal that allegedly earned 00:28:21.849 --> 00:28:24.869 him $10 million, which was then deposited in 00:28:24.869 --> 00:28:26.670 an Indian bank. And what about their properties? 00:28:26.950 --> 00:28:29.430 She ordered the construction of a sprawling new 00:28:29.430 --> 00:28:33.089 110 -acre prime ministerial residence in Islamabad 00:28:33.089 --> 00:28:37.710 that cost a reported $50 million. But most notoriously, 00:28:37.890 --> 00:28:41.309 Zardari secretly purchased the 15 -bedroom Rockwood 00:28:41.309 --> 00:28:44.140 estate in Surrey, England. a lavish property 00:28:44.140 --> 00:28:46.259 hidden through a complicated network of offshore 00:28:46.259 --> 00:28:49.000 shell companies based in the Isle of Man. So 00:28:49.000 --> 00:28:50.680 while she's running one of the world's most corrupt 00:28:50.680 --> 00:28:52.880 countries, Transparency International ranked 00:28:52.880 --> 00:28:54.920 Pakistan the world's second most corrupt during 00:28:54.920 --> 00:28:57.599 this term, she's also secretly acquiring these 00:28:57.599 --> 00:29:00.579 massive hidden international assets. And the 00:29:00.579 --> 00:29:03.319 corruption was deeply globalized. Later Swiss 00:29:03.319 --> 00:29:05.839 investigations, specifically the ones led by 00:29:05.839 --> 00:29:08.660 a Geneva magistrate named Daniel DeVoe, revealed 00:29:08.660 --> 00:29:11.259 damning evidence. Oh, the Swiss investigations 00:29:11.259 --> 00:29:14.680 were key. DeVoe investigated $200 million that 00:29:14.680 --> 00:29:16.839 was intended for Zardari and another Pakistani 00:29:16.839 --> 00:29:19.029 official from the French. aircraft manufacturer 00:29:19.029 --> 00:29:22.470 Dassault to facilitate a $4 billion jet sale. 00:29:22.670 --> 00:29:25.670 And there was more. There was $15 million in 00:29:25.670 --> 00:29:28.890 bribes taken from two Swiss customs firms, SGS 00:29:28.890 --> 00:29:31.549 and Catechna. And these weren't just accusations. 00:29:31.769 --> 00:29:35.349 These were legal findings. What was the Swiss 00:29:35.349 --> 00:29:38.329 magistrate's ultimate conclusion about Boutot's 00:29:38.329 --> 00:29:41.190 own role in all this? DeVoe concluded that Boutot 00:29:41.190 --> 00:29:44.470 herself knew she was acting in a criminally reprehensible 00:29:44.470 --> 00:29:47.190 manner. Now, she consistently maintained that 00:29:47.190 --> 00:29:49.450 these were all politically motivated witch hunts, 00:29:49.450 --> 00:29:51.890 but a UK court later ruled that the Rockwood 00:29:51.890 --> 00:29:54.089 estate should be sold, with the proceeds going 00:29:54.089 --> 00:29:56.630 back to the Pakistani state. They acknowledged 00:29:56.630 --> 00:29:59.690 it was the rightful defrauded owner. And the 00:29:59.690 --> 00:30:01.829 connection to international financial secrecy 00:30:01.829 --> 00:30:04.150 just kept growing over the years. It did. The 00:30:04.150 --> 00:30:06.329 Panama Papers revelations later linked her to 00:30:06.329 --> 00:30:08.930 Mossack Fonseca and an entity called Petroline 00:30:08.930 --> 00:30:11.630 International Inc. And even more seriously, a 00:30:11.630 --> 00:30:14.509 U .N. inquiry in 2005 concluded that her firm 00:30:14.509 --> 00:30:17.849 paid $2 million in bribes to Saddam Hussein's 00:30:17.849 --> 00:30:20.369 government to get oil contracts under the U .N.'s 00:30:20.369 --> 00:30:23.329 Oil for Food program. The scope is just shocking. 00:30:23.569 --> 00:30:25.609 And amidst this tidal wave of corruption, she 00:30:25.609 --> 00:30:27.589 was also pushing forward with what our sources 00:30:27.589 --> 00:30:29.890 call the imperfect feminist agenda, an interesting 00:30:29.890 --> 00:30:32.690 and, frankly, frustrating mix of progress and 00:30:32.690 --> 00:30:35.150 concession. This is truly the core contradiction 00:30:35.150 --> 00:30:37.910 of her political identity. On one hand, she was 00:30:37.910 --> 00:30:40.430 celebrated for advancing women's rights. But 00:30:40.430 --> 00:30:42.390 on the other, she was criticized for failing 00:30:42.390 --> 00:30:45.130 to deliver core reforms. What were the achievements? 00:30:45.509 --> 00:30:47.630 She ratified the convention on the elimination 00:30:47.630 --> 00:30:50.089 of all forms of discrimination against women. 00:30:50.269 --> 00:30:52.990 She created a women's development division, a 00:30:52.990 --> 00:30:55.930 women's bank. She established family courts with 00:30:55.930 --> 00:30:58.690 female judges and appointed the first women judges 00:30:58.690 --> 00:31:01.289 to the Supreme Courts of Peshawar and Sindh. 00:31:01.809 --> 00:31:11.960 Globally, she was... So why the title Imperfect 00:31:11.960 --> 00:31:14.559 Feminist? Because despite all of that, which 00:31:14.559 --> 00:31:17.420 required immense political capital, she failed 00:31:17.420 --> 00:31:20.539 utterly on her most potent promise, repealing 00:31:20.539 --> 00:31:23.059 the conservative discriminatory hoodoo ordinances. 00:31:23.059 --> 00:31:25.430 The same ones from her first term. The very same. 00:31:25.609 --> 00:31:28.130 She'd vowed to abolish them and she failed again. 00:31:28.369 --> 00:31:31.150 She was heavily criticized by liberal and feminist 00:31:31.150 --> 00:31:33.769 groups for prioritizing political survival over 00:31:33.769 --> 00:31:36.690 fundamental rights reform. On top of that, she 00:31:36.690 --> 00:31:39.490 maintained a strong publicly anti -abortion stance. 00:31:39.890 --> 00:31:42.970 She even spoke forcefully against it at a 1994 00:31:42.970 --> 00:31:46.150 international conference, accusing the West of 00:31:46.150 --> 00:31:48.549 trying to impose its secular norms on religious 00:31:48.549 --> 00:31:52.599 societies. So a political feminist? but a traditionalist 00:31:52.599 --> 00:31:54.539 in many social and religious areas. It seems 00:31:54.539 --> 00:31:57.140 so. And while she's dealing with all this international 00:31:57.140 --> 00:32:00.299 scandal, social compromises, she's facing an 00:32:00.299 --> 00:32:03.059 explosive internal threat. the Budo family civil 00:32:03.059 --> 00:32:05.619 war, which erupts when her brother Murtaza returns 00:32:05.619 --> 00:32:08.400 from exile. This was intensely personal, political, 00:32:08.500 --> 00:32:11.599 and ultimately deadly. Murtaza returns in 1993, 00:32:11.900 --> 00:32:14.440 and he positions herself as the true socialist 00:32:14.440 --> 00:32:17.599 heir to their father's populist legacy. His entire 00:32:17.599 --> 00:32:20.180 platform was based on genuine egalitarianism 00:32:20.180 --> 00:32:23.059 and direct public criticism of Zardari's soaring 00:32:23.059 --> 00:32:25.279 corruption. The clash of the dynasts. It was 00:32:25.279 --> 00:32:27.400 highly publicized and deeply damaging for her. 00:32:27.519 --> 00:32:30.250 Deeply. Murtaza was arrested when he arrived, 00:32:30.490 --> 00:32:32.750 held for eight months, and then when he was released, 00:32:32.769 --> 00:32:37.309 he formed his own breakaway party, the PPP, Shahid 00:32:37.309 --> 00:32:41.049 Bhutto. Shahid means martyr. Symbolically linking 00:32:41.049 --> 00:32:43.890 his party closer to their martyred father than 00:32:43.890 --> 00:32:47.089 his sisters. Precisely. And he publicly distanced 00:32:47.089 --> 00:32:49.369 himself from her by scornfully referring to her 00:32:49.369 --> 00:32:52.390 as Begum Zardari, implying she'd abandoned the 00:32:52.390 --> 00:32:55.190 Butoh legacy for her corrupt husband. The family 00:32:55.190 --> 00:32:57.950 rift became absolute when Benazir turned on her 00:32:57.950 --> 00:33:00.809 own mother. Yes. The animosity was so severe 00:33:00.809 --> 00:33:03.829 that Benazir ousted her mother, Nusrat, as co 00:33:03.829 --> 00:33:06.910 -chair of the PPP for supporting Ritaza. Nusrat 00:33:06.910 --> 00:33:09.750 even told the New York Times, about democracy, 00:33:09.990 --> 00:33:12.329 but she's become a little dictator. The dynasty 00:33:12.329 --> 00:33:15.210 was just fracturing in public. And this internal 00:33:15.210 --> 00:33:17.529 conflict culminates tragically in one of the 00:33:17.529 --> 00:33:19.609 darkest chapters of her career. On September 00:33:19.609 --> 00:33:23.029 20, 1996, Murtaza was ambushed and killed by 00:33:23.029 --> 00:33:25.529 police near his home in Karachi. The widespread 00:33:25.529 --> 00:33:28.170 suspicion was immediate that a senior government 00:33:28.170 --> 00:33:31.109 figure, possibly Bhutto or Zardari, had ordered 00:33:31.109 --> 00:33:33.009 the killing. And whether it was true or not, 00:33:33.210 --> 00:33:35.410 the suspicion alone must have shattered her domestic 00:33:35.410 --> 00:33:38.869 credibility. Beyond repair. She immediately brought 00:33:38.869 --> 00:33:41.210 in Scotland Yard to investigate to try and quell 00:33:41.210 --> 00:33:43.630 the rumors, but the damage was permanent. And 00:33:43.630 --> 00:33:45.970 this final scandal, combined with the crushing 00:33:45.970 --> 00:33:48.470 economic crisis and the rampant corruption, it 00:33:48.470 --> 00:33:50.569 proved too much even for the loyalists she had 00:33:50.569 --> 00:33:53.470 installed as president. Exactly. President Ligari, 00:33:53.609 --> 00:33:55.789 the very man she chose to shield her from the 00:33:55.789 --> 00:33:58.890 military, turned on her. He had warned her repeatedly 00:33:58.890 --> 00:34:01.089 to address the corruption and the economic collapse. 00:34:01.450 --> 00:34:03.970 When she failed to do so, and perhaps motivated 00:34:03.970 --> 00:34:06.950 by the suspicion around Murtaza's death, he used 00:34:06.950 --> 00:34:08.730 the Eighth Amendment to dismiss her government 00:34:08.730 --> 00:34:12.590 in November 1996. Citing the same things as before. 00:34:12.809 --> 00:34:14.989 The very same things. Corruption, the economic 00:34:14.989 --> 00:34:17.050 downturn, and suspicion of her involvement in 00:34:17.050 --> 00:34:20.119 her brother's murder. Zardari was arrested immediately 00:34:20.119 --> 00:34:22.519 and this time remained in prison for eight years 00:34:22.519 --> 00:34:25.920 until 2004. So following this disastrous second 00:34:25.920 --> 00:34:28.920 dismissal and then a historic PPP electoral defeat 00:34:28.920 --> 00:34:32.480 in 1997. Benazir is convicted in absentia in 00:34:32.480 --> 00:34:35.480 April 1999. She gets a five -year sentence, an 00:34:35.480 --> 00:34:38.760 $8 .6 million fine, and is disqualified from 00:34:38.760 --> 00:34:41.539 public office. She chased self -exile. And for 00:34:41.539 --> 00:34:43.559 eight years, she lived primarily in Dubai and 00:34:43.559 --> 00:34:46.760 London, managing the PPP from afar and fighting 00:34:46.760 --> 00:34:49.559 this intense series of global legal battles against 00:34:49.559 --> 00:34:51.679 the corruption charges, especially the Swiss 00:34:51.679 --> 00:34:53.960 ones. She was also caring for her mother, whose 00:34:53.960 --> 00:34:56.360 Alzheimer's disease had progressed severely by 00:34:56.360 --> 00:34:58.579 that point. Her political position seemed completely 00:34:58.579 --> 00:35:01.650 finished. She was a convicted criminal in exile 00:35:01.650 --> 00:35:05.550 facing global financial investigation. What changed 00:35:05.550 --> 00:35:07.889 in the mid -2000s that suddenly made her return 00:35:07.889 --> 00:35:11.429 not just viable but actually desirable for external 00:35:11.429 --> 00:35:14.780 powers? The political landscape in Pakistan shifted 00:35:14.780 --> 00:35:17.579 dramatically. The U .S. and U .K. governments 00:35:17.579 --> 00:35:20.300 were losing faith in General Pervez Musharraf. 00:35:20.480 --> 00:35:23.000 His domestic approval rating had just plummeted 00:35:23.000 --> 00:35:25.260 because of his continued military rule, and he 00:35:25.260 --> 00:35:27.539 was facing a severe rise in Islamist violence. 00:35:27.920 --> 00:35:30.420 So the West needed a stable civilian secular 00:35:30.420 --> 00:35:32.980 partner. A partner who could potentially bridge 00:35:32.980 --> 00:35:35.659 the gap between Pakistan's political elite and 00:35:35.659 --> 00:35:38.679 the West. And Bhutto, with her democratic credentials 00:35:38.679 --> 00:35:41.320 and her global profile, fit the bill perfectly. 00:35:41.789 --> 00:35:44.230 This sets the stage for what the sources call 00:35:44.230 --> 00:35:47.869 her US -brokered return. How does she go from 00:35:47.869 --> 00:35:50.530 being this rival to negotiating with her political 00:35:50.530 --> 00:35:52.809 enemies? Well, first, she reconciled with her 00:35:52.809 --> 00:35:56.329 longtime rival, Nawaz Sharif, in 2006. They signed 00:35:56.329 --> 00:35:58.550 a Charter of Democracy calling for an end to 00:35:58.550 --> 00:36:01.510 military rule. But crucially, she began direct 00:36:01.510 --> 00:36:04.849 negotiations with Musharraf in 2007 under the 00:36:04.849 --> 00:36:07.349 implicit supervision of the U .S. and the U .K. 00:36:07.510 --> 00:36:10.550 And the political bargain was messy but clear. 00:36:10.809 --> 00:36:13.369 It was. What was the critical legal tool that 00:36:13.369 --> 00:36:18.320 allowed this whole thing to happen? Or NRO, Musharraf 00:36:18.320 --> 00:36:20.300 signed it. And it was the mechanism that dropped 00:36:20.300 --> 00:36:22.440 corruption charges against numerous politicians, 00:36:22.820 --> 00:36:25.559 including Budo and Zardari. Allowing them to 00:36:25.559 --> 00:36:27.340 legally return and participate in elections. 00:36:27.539 --> 00:36:30.739 Exactly. And it also, very conveniently for Musharraf, 00:36:30.900 --> 00:36:33.840 lifted the two -term limit on the prime ministership, 00:36:33.860 --> 00:36:35.800 which would have benefited him if he could secure 00:36:35.800 --> 00:36:38.860 a civilian role. The deal was basically, Musharraf 00:36:38.860 --> 00:36:41.440 steps down as army chief and stays on as a civilian 00:36:41.440 --> 00:36:43.480 president, and she would serve as his prime minister. 00:36:43.699 --> 00:36:47.000 A classic political competition. trading principles 00:36:47.000 --> 00:36:50.599 for a path back to power. She returns to Pakistan 00:36:50.599 --> 00:36:54.000 in October 2007, arriving in Karachi to this 00:36:54.000 --> 00:36:56.840 immense public celebration. Her return was met 00:36:56.840 --> 00:36:59.500 with a massive crowd. It was a sign that the 00:36:59.500 --> 00:37:02.059 public memory of her corruption had largely been 00:37:02.059 --> 00:37:04.699 overridden by this deep desire for a democratic 00:37:04.699 --> 00:37:08.059 transition. But that celebration turned instantly 00:37:08.059 --> 00:37:11.110 into terror. Her cavalcade was hit by two bombs. 00:37:12.070 --> 00:37:14.710 149 people were killed. She was miraculously 00:37:14.710 --> 00:37:17.590 unharmed, shielded by her vehicle. And her reaction 00:37:17.590 --> 00:37:19.989 to that attempt was immediate and highly aggressive. 00:37:20.289 --> 00:37:22.570 What did she do? She immediately accused key 00:37:22.570 --> 00:37:24.889 government officials, whom she suspected were 00:37:24.889 --> 00:37:27.230 rogue elements within the intelligence agencies, 00:37:27.489 --> 00:37:30.210 of being involved in the plot. She sent a list 00:37:30.210 --> 00:37:32.329 with their names directly to Musharraf, demanding 00:37:32.329 --> 00:37:35.010 accountability. She then demanded a formal investigation 00:37:35.010 --> 00:37:37.849 by the UK's Scotland Yard or the FBI. Because 00:37:37.849 --> 00:37:39.420 she had no faith. within the domestic authorities? 00:37:39.639 --> 00:37:42.500 None. And Musharraf refused that external investigation, 00:37:42.860 --> 00:37:45.119 which strained their already fragile bargain. 00:37:45.300 --> 00:37:47.699 It just confirmed her deepest fears that the 00:37:47.699 --> 00:37:49.739 deep state was actively working against her. 00:37:49.860 --> 00:37:52.400 And when Musharraf declared a state of emergency 00:37:52.400 --> 00:37:55.579 in November, she publicly denounced him. A strategic 00:37:55.579 --> 00:37:58.579 distancing. She knew that any continued association 00:37:58.579 --> 00:38:01.159 with him would ruin her credibility ahead of 00:38:01.159 --> 00:38:03.780 the 2008 election. So she returns to campaigning. 00:38:04.119 --> 00:38:07.000 She files her papers, announces the PPP platform 00:38:07.000 --> 00:38:10.219 based on the five E's, employment, education, 00:38:10.619 --> 00:38:15.159 energy, environment, and equality. But that manifesto 00:38:15.159 --> 00:38:17.559 made a direct promise that challenged the very 00:38:17.559 --> 00:38:19.820 power structure that executed her father. It 00:38:19.820 --> 00:38:22.809 was explicit. The manifesto called for greater 00:38:22.809 --> 00:38:25.590 civilian oversight of the military and the intelligence 00:38:25.590 --> 00:38:28.349 agencies. It sought to rid them of elements driven 00:38:28.349 --> 00:38:31.530 by political or religious motives. She was publicly 00:38:31.530 --> 00:38:33.949 and unequivocally targeting the deep state that 00:38:33.949 --> 00:38:36.530 had fought her family for decades. And that campaign 00:38:36.530 --> 00:38:40.050 led directly to Rawalpindi, December 27, 2007. 00:38:40.449 --> 00:38:42.809 Right. And we should reiterate the open questions 00:38:42.809 --> 00:38:44.829 around her assassination because the conclusion 00:38:44.829 --> 00:38:47.610 is still deeply controversial. The official accounts 00:38:47.610 --> 00:38:50.519 were messy from the start. Very messy. Pakistani 00:38:50.519 --> 00:38:53.559 authorities and the CIA immediately blamed Baitullah 00:38:53.559 --> 00:38:55.699 Massoud, the leader of the Pakistani Taliban. 00:38:56.039 --> 00:38:59.199 He certainly had a clear motive. He saw her secular, 00:38:59.380 --> 00:39:02.440 pro -American agenda as a direct threat. But 00:39:02.440 --> 00:39:05.619 then an al -Qaeda commander, Mustafa Abu al -Yazid, 00:39:05.619 --> 00:39:08.619 also claimed responsibility. He declared they 00:39:08.619 --> 00:39:11.699 had terminated the most precious American asset. 00:39:11.980 --> 00:39:14.659 So you have conflicting claims. But the real 00:39:14.659 --> 00:39:16.760 controversy isn't just about who pulled the trigger, 00:39:16.840 --> 00:39:19.119 but about the investigation itself. The internal 00:39:19.119 --> 00:39:21.920 cover up is the lasting stain on the case. No 00:39:21.920 --> 00:39:25.360 autopsy was ever conducted. Zardari later rejected 00:39:25.360 --> 00:39:28.260 requests to exhume the body. A subsequent U .N. 00:39:28.280 --> 00:39:31.179 inquiry led by Geraldo Munoz concluded that the 00:39:31.179 --> 00:39:33.059 original police investigation was deliberately 00:39:33.059 --> 00:39:36.079 botched. suggesting assistance from rogue elements 00:39:36.079 --> 00:39:38.840 within Pakistan's intelligence agencies. Exactly. 00:39:39.039 --> 00:39:41.079 The sad reality is that many powerful factions 00:39:41.079 --> 00:39:42.679 in Pakistan, from the military establishment 00:39:42.679 --> 00:39:44.840 to fundamentalist groups, had strong reasons 00:39:44.840 --> 00:39:47.119 for wanting her dead. The case remains, for all 00:39:47.119 --> 00:39:49.599 intents and purposes, unsolved. And even in death, 00:39:49.800 --> 00:39:52.599 the dynastic element of her political life continued 00:39:52.599 --> 00:39:55.019 without missing a beat. She left a political 00:39:55.019 --> 00:39:58.320 will. It designated her 19 -year -old son Bilawal 00:39:58.320 --> 00:40:00.980 as her political heir and co -chair of the PPP. 00:40:02.320 --> 00:40:05.159 Asif Ali Zardari served as a custodial chairman 00:40:05.159 --> 00:40:08.039 until Bilawal finished his education. And Zardari, 00:40:08.139 --> 00:40:10.039 of course, eventually became president of Pakistan 00:40:10.039 --> 00:40:13.199 in 2008. And sharing the Bhutto family's central, 00:40:13.440 --> 00:40:15.980 enduring, and controversial role in Pakistani 00:40:15.980 --> 00:40:20.159 politics remained absolutely intact. Benazir 00:40:20.159 --> 00:40:22.840 Bhutto's life. It just demands a complex verdict. 00:40:23.500 --> 00:40:25.940 When we look at the totality of the sources tracing 00:40:25.940 --> 00:40:28.000 her journey from being Pinky Butoh in Karachi 00:40:28.000 --> 00:40:30.900 to the tragic end of a global icon in Rawalpindi, 00:40:31.119 --> 00:40:33.340 you have to confront these core contradictions 00:40:33.340 --> 00:40:35.940 head on. On one hand, she was celebrated globally 00:40:35.940 --> 00:40:39.070 as a respected world leader. an icon for women's 00:40:39.070 --> 00:40:41.909 rights in a deeply male -dominated society. And 00:40:41.909 --> 00:40:43.650 her achievements in breaking that glass ceiling 00:40:43.650 --> 00:40:45.869 are undeniable. They inspired millions of people 00:40:45.869 --> 00:40:48.429 worldwide. Yet domestically, her image was severely 00:40:48.429 --> 00:40:50.829 tarnished. The sources paint her as a corrupt, 00:40:50.889 --> 00:40:53.730 compromised politician who was perhaps more addicted 00:40:53.730 --> 00:40:56.250 to adulation than she was to implementing true, 00:40:56.349 --> 00:40:59.039 painful reform. The contrast is just jarring. 00:40:59.199 --> 00:41:01.679 She was lauded in the West speaking perfect English, 00:41:01.800 --> 00:41:04.599 holding Harvard and Oxford credentials. But she 00:41:04.599 --> 00:41:08.400 was despised by the powerful extremist Sunni 00:41:08.400 --> 00:41:11.539 Islamist elements who fundamentally opposed female 00:41:11.539 --> 00:41:15.500 leadership and saw her as this dangerous secularist, 00:41:15.519 --> 00:41:17.840 a puppet of the West. One of the analyses refers 00:41:17.840 --> 00:41:21.239 to her as a feudal Democrat. That term seems 00:41:21.239 --> 00:41:24.099 to encapsulate the central failing of her premierships, 00:41:24.179 --> 00:41:26.780 tying her right back to her roots in the landed 00:41:26.780 --> 00:41:29.480 gentry. It's a perfect, painful description. 00:41:29.599 --> 00:41:32.320 It means she spoke like a Democrat. She thought 00:41:32.320 --> 00:41:35.480 and felt as a dynast. Despite all her fiery rhetoric 00:41:35.480 --> 00:41:38.199 about egalitarianism and all power to the people, 00:41:38.440 --> 00:41:41.260 she did nothing during her time in power to seriously 00:41:41.260 --> 00:41:43.820 challenge the feudal nature of Pakistan's rural 00:41:43.820 --> 00:41:46.519 society. How did that manifest in her policies? 00:41:46.920 --> 00:41:49.059 Well, the wealthy feudal class continued to dominate 00:41:49.059 --> 00:41:51.760 the PPP at all levels of government. They maintained 00:41:51.760 --> 00:41:54.079 their control over vast tracts of land and economic 00:41:54.079 --> 00:41:56.840 influence. Her policies, despite the populist... 00:41:56.809 --> 00:41:58.710 language primarily benefited these privileged 00:41:58.710 --> 00:42:01.949 classes. They reinforced the status quo. So critics 00:42:01.949 --> 00:42:04.849 argue that the PPP under her leadership became 00:42:04.849 --> 00:42:07.730 in practice a center right party, not a true 00:42:07.730 --> 00:42:10.289 left wing party. Exactly. It maintained the very 00:42:10.289 --> 00:42:12.670 structures of inequality her father had at least 00:42:12.670 --> 00:42:16.849 nominally opposed. So she was a pioneer who broke 00:42:16.849 --> 00:42:20.070 a monumental barrier for women. Yet she exploited 00:42:20.070 --> 00:42:22.130 and perpetuated the institutional corruption 00:42:22.130 --> 00:42:25.070 she inherited, often enriching her own family 00:42:25.070 --> 00:42:27.289 while claiming to serve the people. And that 00:42:27.289 --> 00:42:29.989 ideological flexibility is central to any judgment 00:42:29.989 --> 00:42:32.960 of her career. She shifted the PPP from socialism 00:42:32.960 --> 00:42:36.260 to Thatcherism to secure power. But she couldn't 00:42:36.260 --> 00:42:38.380 bring herself to fully enact the liberal reforms 00:42:38.380 --> 00:42:41.460 she championed, like failing to repeal the oppressive 00:42:41.460 --> 00:42:44.719 Hudud ordinances, the very laws Musharraf eventually 00:42:44.719 --> 00:42:47.059 revoked after her death. Her life was a constant 00:42:47.059 --> 00:42:49.800 negotiation. A constant negotiation between political 00:42:49.800 --> 00:42:52.199 principle and political necessity. And in the 00:42:52.199 --> 00:42:54.900 end, necessity and dynastic ambition often won 00:42:54.900 --> 00:42:58.300 out. She was unable to truly dismantle Pakistan's 00:42:58.300 --> 00:43:00.849 deep -seated power structures, but her symbolism, 00:43:00.969 --> 00:43:03.929 as the first woman elected, was undeniable. Okay, 00:43:03.989 --> 00:43:05.989 let's tie this all back to you, the learner. 00:43:06.789 --> 00:43:10.349 The complex figure of Benazir Bhutto forces us 00:43:10.349 --> 00:43:13.469 to confront a really difficult moral and political 00:43:13.469 --> 00:43:16.679 judgment about what legacy means. When a leader 00:43:16.679 --> 00:43:19.480 is defined by both a historic, world -changing 00:43:19.480 --> 00:43:22.480 accomplishment, becoming the first woman PM in 00:43:22.480 --> 00:43:25.260 a Muslim -majority country, and by massive personal 00:43:25.260 --> 00:43:28.079 and institutional corruption that arguably set 00:43:28.079 --> 00:43:30.679 back the fight against institutional rot, which 00:43:30.679 --> 00:43:33.039 one is the primary legacy? She broke the ceiling, 00:43:33.179 --> 00:43:35.380 but did she corrupt the house? That is the question 00:43:35.380 --> 00:43:37.559 you have to carry forward. Is the primary story 00:43:37.559 --> 00:43:39.400 the breaking of the glass ceiling, which inspired 00:43:39.400 --> 00:43:41.539 millions globally, or is it the institutional 00:43:41.539 --> 00:43:43.940 damage she caused and the futile rot she exploited 00:43:43.940 --> 00:43:46.429 and perpetuated at home? Her life was a victory 00:43:46.429 --> 00:43:49.309 for symbolism, but a profound tragedy for governance.