Begum Nusrat Bhutto ({{Langx|fa|‌نصرت بوتو}}; {{langx|sd|نصرت ڀٽو}}; {{langx|ur|{{Nastaliq|نُصرت بُھٹّو}}}}; {{née|Ispahani}} [{{langx|fa|اسپهانی|links=no}}]; 23 March 1929 – 23 October 2011) was an Iranian-born Pakistani public figure who served as the First Lady of Pakistan from 1971 to 1977, as the wife of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, who served as the President and Prime Minister of Pakistan. She also served as a senior member of the federal cabinet between 1988 and 1990, under her daughter Benazir Bhutto's government.

She was born in Isfahan{{cite web |url=http://bhutto.org/begum-nusrat-bhutto.php |title=Bhutto |website=bhutto.org |access-date=12 January 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190206215332/http://bhutto.org/begum-nusrat-bhutto.php |archive-date=6 February 2019 |url-status=dead}} to a wealthy merchant family of Kurdish heritage and her family had settled in Bombay before moving to Karachi after the Partition of British India. Ispahani joined a paramilitary women's force in 1950, but left a year later when she married Zulfikar Ali Bhutto. She moved to Oxfordshire with her husband who then was pursuing his legal education. She returned to Pakistan alongside Bhutto who went on to serve as the Foreign Minister. After her husband founded the Pakistan Peoples Party, Ispahani worked to lead the party's women's wing.{{Cite news|url=http://www.dawn.com/news/668607/nusrat-bhuttos-death-end-of-an-era|title=Nusrat Bhutto's death – end of an era|date=2011-10-24|newspaper=Dawn|access-date=2016-10-30}} After Bhutto was elected as the Prime Minister in 1971, Ispahani became the First Lady of Pakistan and remained so until her husband's removal in 1977. Her daughter, Benazir Bhutto immediately succeeded her husband as the leader of the Pakistan Peoples party. While under house arrest, Ispahani fought an unsuccessful legal battle to prevent her husband's execution. After Bhutto's execution, Ispahani, along with her children, went into exile to London, from where in 1981 she co-founded the Movement for the Restoration of Democracy, a non-violent opposition to Zia's regime.{{cite web|url=http://www.bhutto.org/begum-nusrat-bhutto.php|title=Bhutto|access-date=1 November 2010|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190206215332/http://bhutto.org/begum-nusrat-bhutto.php|archive-date=6 February 2019|url-status=dead}}

Ispahani returned to Pakistan after her daughter Benazir made a comeback in 1986. After the People's Party's victory in 1988, she joined Benazir's cabinet as a minister without portfolio while representing Larkana District in the National Assembly.{{Cite news|url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/begum-nusrat-bhutto-first-lady-of-pakistan-who-fought-to-keep-her-family-together-2376740.html|title=Begum Nusrat Bhutto: First Lady of Pakistan who fought to keep her|date=2011-10-28|newspaper=The Independent|language=en-GB|access-date=2016-10-30}} She remained in the cabinet until Benazir's government was dismissed in 1990. Afterwards, during a family dispute between her son, Murtaza, and her daughter, Benazir, Ispahani favored Murtaza leading Benazir to sack Ispahani as the party leader.{{Cite news|url=http://www.lrb.co.uk/v29/n24/tariq-ali/daughter-of-the-west|title=Daughter of the West|last=Ali|first=Tariq|date=2007-12-13|newspaper=London Review of Books|pages=3–9|issn=0260-9592|access-date=2016-10-30}} Ispahani stopped talking to the media and refrained from political engagements after the assassination of her son Murtaza in 1996 during a police encounter, during her daughter's second government.{{Cite web|url=https://www.thenews.com.pk/archive/print/617569-nusrat-goes-with-many-historic-secrets|title=Nusrat goes with many historic secrets|website=The News International|access-date=2016-10-30|archive-date=13 March 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170313164123/https://www.thenews.com.pk/archive/print/617569-nusrat-goes-with-many-historic-secrets|url-status=dead}}{{Cite news|url=http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/home/sunday-times/deep-focus/Touched-by-tragedy-Exclusive-extracts-from-Fatima-Bhuttos-new-book/articleshow/5733335.cms|title=Touched by tragedy: Exclusive extracts from Fatima Bhutto's new book |newspaper=The Times of India|access-date=2016-10-30}}

Ispahani moved to Dubai in 1996, suffering from Alzheimer's disease, she was kept out of public's eye by Benazir until her demise on 23 October 2011.{{cite news|url=http://paktribune.com/news/Mother-of-Democracy-Nusrat-Bhutto-laid-to-rest-244616.html|title=Mother of Democracy Nusrat Bhutto laid to rest|last=Leading News|date=25 October 2011|newspaper=Pakistan Tribune|access-date=3 November 2011|archive-date=13 March 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170313164746/http://paktribune.com/news/Mother-of-Democracy-Nusrat-Bhutto-laid-to-rest-244616.html|url-status=dead}} In Pakistan, Ispahani is remembered for her contribution to empowerment of women in Pakistan and for advocating for democracy in Pakistan, for which she is dubbed as {{Transliteration|ur|Mādar-e-Jamhūriyat}} (English "Mother of Democracy"), a title she was honored with by the parliament following her death.{{cite news|last=Gilani, MBBS|first=Syed Nazir|title=Death in six instalments|url=http://pakobserver.net/detailnews.asp?id=123199|access-date=3 November 2011|newspaper=Pakistan Observer|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120424035018/http://pakobserver.net/detailnews.asp?id=123199|archive-date=24 April 2012}}

Early life

Nusrat Ispahani was born on 23 March 1929 in Isfahan, Persia (now Iran).{{Cite web|url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/begum-nusrat-bhutto-first-lady-pakistan-who-fought-keep-her-family-together-2376740.html|title = Begum Nusrat Bhutto: First Lady of Pakistan who fought to keep her|website = Independent.co.uk|date = 30 October 2011}} Her father was a businessman who came from the wealthy Persian Hariri family in Isfahan. Her mother was from Kurdistan. Shortly after her birth, the family moved to British India, where they initially lived in Bombay and then moved to Karachi before the Partition of British India and the creation of Pakistan in 1947. She grew up with Iranian traditions at her home but adapted to Indian Muslim culture outside.

Before emigrating to Pakistan, Nusrat attended the University of Karachi where she obtained a Bachelor of Arts (B.A.) in Humanities in 1950.

Political life

As first lady from 1973 to 1977, Nusrat Bhutto functioned as a political worker and accompanied her husband on a number of overseas visits. In 1979, after the trial and execution of her husband, she succeeded her husband as leader of the Pakistan Peoples Party as chairman for life. She led the PPP's campaign against General Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq's regime. Alongside her daughter Benazir Bhutto, she was arrested numerous times and placed under house arrest and in prison in Sihala. Nusrat Bhutto was attacked by police with batons while attending a cricket match at Gaddafi Stadium in Lahore, when the crowd began to raise pro Bhutto slogans. In 1982, ill with cancer, she was given permission to leave the country by the military government of General Zia-ul-Haq for medical treatment in London at which point her daughter, Benazir Bhutto, became acting leader of the party, and, by 1984, the party chairman.{{cite news|title=Miss Benazir Bhutto, the daughter of the former Prime Minister, Zulfikar Bhutto, and chairman of the Pakistan People's Party has been released from detention and has gone to Paris to be with her cancer-stricken mother|newspaper=Financial Times|date=11 January 1984}}{{cite news|author=Hall, Carla|title=The April of her freedom five years later, Benazir Bhutto's plea for Pakistan|newspaper=The Washington Post|date=4 April 1984}}

After returning to Pakistan in the late 1980s, she served two terms as a Member of Parliament to the National Assembly from the family constituency of Larkana, Sindh. During the administrations of her daughter Benazir, she became a cabinet minister and Senior Federal Minister. In the 1990s, she and Benazir became estranged when Nusrat took the side of her son Murtaza during a family dispute but were later reconciled after Murtaza's murder. She lived the last few years of her life with her daughter's family in Dubai, United Arab Emirates and later suffered from the combined effects of a stroke and Alzheimer's disease.

Personal life, illness and death

Besides her native Persian, Bhutto was fluent in Urdu and Sindhi.{{Cite news |last=Sadeghi |first=Shirin |date=26 October 2011 |title=The death of an icon |url=https://tribune.com.pk/story/281684/the-death-of-an-icon |access-date=30 October 2024 |work=The Express Tribune}} Nusrat met Zulfikar Ali Bhutto in Karachi where they later got married on 8 September 1951. She was Zulfikar Ali Bhutto's second wife, and they had four children together: Benazir, Murtaza, Sanam and Shahnawaz. With the exception of Sanam, she outlived her children. Benazir's widower and Nusrat's son-in-law Asif Ali Zardari was the President of Pakistan from 9 September 2008 to 8 September 2013{{Cite news|url=https://www.dawn.com/news/1374113|title=Special Report: After the assassination 2008-2013|last=Partner|first=The Media Group {{!}} Publishing|date=2017-12-02|work=Dawn|access-date=2018-03-14|language=en-US}} and from March 2024 to the present.

Bhutto was suspected of cancer in 1982, and hence, allowed to leave Pakistan for medical treatment. While she continued her political activities from outside the country, she handed over the reigns of the party to her daughter Benazir.{{Cite news |last=Ahmad |first=Imtiaz |date=25 October 2011 |title=Nusrat Bhutto passes away |url=https://www.hindustantimes.com/world/nusrat-bhutto-passes-away/story-0dT08fpGxTas6WRKGkGB7L.html |access-date=30 October 2024 |work=Hindustan Times}} Three years later, her youngest son, Shahnawaz was found dead at Cannes.{{Cite news |last=Malik |first=Rehman |date=23 November 2021 |title=Uncovering the mystery Shahnawaz Bhutto's murder |url=https://www.nation.com.pk/23-Nov-2021/uncovering-the-mystery-shahnawaz-bhutto-s-murder |access-date=30 October 2024 |work=The Nation (Pakistan)}} She withdrew from public life particularly after her son Murtuza's death in 1996, which some suggest coincides with her onset of Alzheimer's disease. At the time of her daughter Benazir's assassination, the disease was so advanced that she did not of the killing.{{Cite news |last=Tunio |first=Hafeez |date=23 October 2011 |title=Nusrat Bhutto, doyenne of MRD, dies at 82 |url=https://tribune.com.pk/story/280205/nusrat-bhutto-passes-away-in-dubai |access-date=30 October 2024 |work=The Express Tribune}}{{Cite news |last=Keleny |first=Anne |date=28 October 2011 |title=Begum Nusrat Bhutto: First Lady of Pakistan who fought to keep her |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/begum-nusrat-bhutto-first-lady-of-pakistan-who-fought-to-keep-her-family-together-2376740.html |access-date=2018-03-14 |work=The Independent |language=en-GB}}

Bhutto used a ventilator during her last days. She died at the age of 82 in the Iranian Hospital Dubai on 23 October 2011. Her son-in-law, then Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari, cut short his official trip to Jordan to escort her body from Dubai to Pakistan. Her grandchildren, Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, Bakhtawar Bhutto Zardari, and Aseefa Bhutto Zardari came in from London. Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani announced a public holiday for the next day, as well as a ten-day mourning period. The ruling Pakistan Peoples Party, founded by her husband, announced that it will suspend all political activities for the following 40 days to mourn her death.

Her body was laid to rest at Garhi Khuda Bakhsh in the Larkana District the next day. She was buried next to her husband and children in the Bhutto family mausoleum at a ceremony attended by thousands of mourners.

Pakistan International Airlines ran special flights from Islamabad, Lahore, and Karachi to Sukkur for those who wish to attend the funeral.

References

External links

[https://web.archive.org/web/20111026074221/http://www.bhutto.org/ Shaheed Zulfikar Ali Bhutto]
{{cite news|title=Nusrat Bhutto passes away|url=https://www.hindustantimes.com/world/nusrat-bhutto-passes-away/story-0dT08fpGxTas6WRKGkGB7L.html|first=Imtiaz|last=Ahmad|newspaper=Hindustan Times|date=October 25, 2011}}

{{s-ttl||title=Chairperson of the Pakistan Peoples Party
Benazir Bhutto was acting chairperson from 1982 to 1984|years=1979–1984}}

{{Government of Prime minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto|state=collapsed}}

Category:1929 births

Category:2011 deaths

Category:Spouses of prime ministers of Pakistan

Category:Pakistan People's Party MNAs

Nusrat

Category:Pakistani Shia Muslims

Category:Pakistani people of Iranian descent

Category:Pakistani people of Kurdish descent

Category:Iranian emigrants to Pakistan

Category:Pakistani expatriates in the United Arab Emirates