ISLAMABAD: The 17th death anniversary of former Prime Minister and Chairperson of Pakistan People’s Party Benazir Bhutto is being observed in the country today (Friday).

Ms Bhutto was assassinated on December 27, 2007, after she came out of Liaquat Bagh in Rawalpindi days before the general elections were scheduled to be held in the country. The polls were then delayed.

Ms Bhutto was the first Muslim woman to become the prime minister. She remained the prime minister of Pakistan twice. She was the soft image of not only Pakistan but also of the entire Muslim world.

She bravely fought two dictators in her political life but never bowed to either Gen Ziaul Haq, who hanged her father Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, and Gen Pervez Musharraf during whose dictatorship she was assassinated.

Before the general elections of 2007, Benazir Bhutto had returned from exile and was targeted by a bomb attack in Karachi in October of that year in which she survived but hundreds of workers of the PPP were killed and injured.

It’s unfortunate that those who planned and executed it to assassinate Benazir couldn’t be exposed and brought to justice even after the passage of 17 years.

Meanwhile, PPP workers and supporters along with the party leaders gathered at Garhi Khuda Bakhsh in Sindh, where Benazir is buried, to pay tributes to her.

The PPP will also hold gatherings in other parts of the country to observe her death anniversary and pay her tribute for her services to democracy.