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Published on 01/25/1999 All articles from this issue

Former Pakistan prime minister urges U.S. aid at Celebrity Forum

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By Clyde Noel

Special to the Town Crier

At age 35, Benazir Bhutto was sworn in as prime minister of Pakistan, becoming the first woman to head a government in any Islamic state. Speaking at the Foothill College Celebrity Forum Speaker Series, Jan. 15, Bhutto spoke without bitterness about her misfortunes as leader of the Pakistan Peoples Party.

Arrested on numerous occasions, Bhutto spent nearly six years in prison or under detention. She spoke of her late father, Sulfikar Ali Bhutto's death by hanging after a military coup.

Her husband, Asif Ali Zardari, has been in prison since the government dismissed Bhutto in November 1996 following allegations that Zardari murdered Bhutto's brother, Murtaza, and received kickbacks from Swiss companies hired by her government.

"We have been exonerated of all the charges and the people have not lost faith in me," Bhutto said. "Being a woman has made the task more formidable. It is not easy to be a woman in Pakistan. The demands, the obstacles and the double standards are greater. It is critical that we women succeed in our attempts. If a woman is tough, she is pushy. If a man is tough, he is a great leader."

When Bhutto became prime minister in 1988, she emphasized the need to put an end to the divisions in Pakistan society. They included reducing discrimination between men and women and a launching a nationwide program of health and education reform.

"I was concerned with the condition and the health of our children. We cracked down on child labor with more than 7,000 raids in the first year. We needed primary health care and nutrition," Bhutto said. "A lot of disease was brought under control and we increased our health expenditures by 60 percent. By 1998, we eliminated polio completely from Pakistan."

Bhutto used her speech to request aid from the United States. "The United States must do everything in its power to establish Pakistan as a model of democracy," she said. "The U.S. should not turn its back on Muslims. Pakistan is now fashioned around what India does. There is a fear and paranoia unless it can match India in their nuclear war."

The Celebrity Forum is a lecture series held at Flint Center on the De Anza College campus in Cupertino.