Former Pakistan Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto (R) escorts her mother Nusrat as they arrive to attend the parliament session in Islamabad in the February 15, 1997, file photo. -Reuters Photo
ISLAMABAD: Begum Nusrat Bhutto, whose husband and daughter both served as prime ministers of Pakistan and a political force herself, died Sunday in Dubai after a long illness, a spokesman for the family’s political party said. She was 82.
Her life tracked many of the ups and downs in Pakistani politics. Her husband, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, was the founder of the Pakistan People’s Party that controls the government in Pakistan today. He served as both prime minister and president in the 1970s.
Begum Nusrat Bhutto took over as head of the Pakistan People’s Party for several years after her husband was hanged in 1979, following what many believed was a politically motivated conspiracy and murder trial. She also served in Pakistan’s parliament.
Her daughter, Benazir Bhutto, took over as head of the Pakistan People’s Party and served twice as prime minister.
She was killed in a suicide bomb attack in 2007, shortly after returning to the country to participate in elections following years of exile in Dubai. Her husband, Asif Ali Zardari, is now Pakistan’s president.
Zardari has traveled to Dubai to bring home Begum Nusrat Bhutto’s body, said Jamil Soomro, a spokesman for the Pakistan People’s Party. She will be buried in the family’s mausoleum in southern Sindh province, Soomro said
