Posted on 12/28/2007 3:50:33 AM PST by billorites
Friends of slain former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto are mourning the passionate politician, nicknamed “Pinky” during her years at Harvard, where she made her mark as a fierce debater, cake baker and defender of her homeland.
Bhutto, a 54-year-old mother of three, led an extraordinary and tragic life marked by great accomplishments, yet marred by controversy, imprisonment, exile and ultimately her murder yesterday after a rally in Pakistan.
“In some ways, every Pakistani knew her. It was like when (Princess Diana) died in the U.K. and when (John F. Kennedy) died here,” said Adil Najam, a Boston University professor of international politics and a Pakistan native. “There are some figures people feel that they have a personal connection. Whether you liked her or not, every Pakistani felt the loss at a personal level.”
Born to a wealthy Pakistani family, young Bhutto came to Harvard at age 16 as a shy, sheltered girl sent by her father, the prime minister, to study politics and government. At Harvard, she was known for baking her friends chocolate birthday cakes decorated with candy corn, as well as for her intelligence and intense national loyalty.
Bruce E.H. Johnson, a Seattle attorney and Bhutto’s former Harvard classmate, recalled that Bhutto was so wealthy that she had never picked up a ringing phone before she came to Harvard. Her family’s servants did that.
“She was curious about the world and willing to say what she believed. She was willing to listen to what others thought. She fully believed that whether man or woman, anybody could achieve what they wanted in Pakistani politics,” he said.
She graduated Harvard in 1973 and went on to Oxford. In 1979, the beautiful and articulate Bhutto thrust herself into Pakistani politics after her father, former Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, was executed. Tragedy would strike a year later when her brother died under mysterious circumstances. Years later, another brother was killed in a shootout.
Bhutto spent five years in prison before her election as prime minister in 1988, making her the first woman to lead a modern Muslim country.
Peter Galbraith, a friend who met Bhutto the first day of their freshman year at Harvard, said her 1988 election was her greatest accomplishment and she could have retired after that, living a comfortable and well-off lifestyle outside Pakistan. But instead, she forged on, he said.
“She could have walked away at any time, but she was determined to keep up the struggle and she did it with courage, with humor with charm,” said Galbraith, who lives in Vermont and is the former U.S. ambassador to Croatia.
Bhutto and Harry Reid shared the same nickname.
I appreciate the story, but I question the nickname.
Benazir Bhutto: As Corrupt As They Come
http://edstrong.blog-city.com/benazir_bhutto_as_corrupt_as_they_come.htm
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