Quotes & Sayings About Bhutto

I can't let my mother's death have been in vain. Democracy is the best revenge, and we will have it. — Bilawal Bhutto Zardari

While living in America when I attended Harvard in the early 1970s, I saw for myself the awesome, almost miraculous, power of a people to change policy through democratic means. — Benazir Bhutto

A people inspired by democracy, human rights and economic opportunity will turn their back decisively against extremism. — Benazir Bhutto

It would be so nice to have the luxury just to laze. So nice not to have to always get up and get dressed for some occasion. Always having to move from here to there, where everything is scheduled and even having lunch with my kids on their Easter break has to be slotted in. Maybe one day ... — Benazir Bhutto

The U.S. came to understand that Bhutto was not a threat to stability but was instead the only possible way that we could guarantee stability and keep the presidency of Musharraf intact. — Benazir Bhutto

Every dictator uses religion as a prop to keep himself in power. — Benazir Bhutto

All through the years of the Soviet empire, its Politburo held 'elections.' Of course, calling something an election and actually having it be an election are different things. — Benazir Bhutto

I find that whenever I am in power, or my father was in power, somehow good things happen. The economy picks up, we have good rains, water comes, people have crops. I think the reason this happens is that we want to give love and we receive love. — Benazir Bhutto

I seek to lead a democratic Pakistan which is free from the yoke of military dictatorship and that will cease to be a haven, the very petri dish of international terrorism. — Benazir Bhutto

What is important is that a political party articulates the mood of a generation. — Benazir Bhutto

Democracy is necessary to peace and to undermining the forces of terrorism. — Benazir Bhutto

When the United States aligns with dictatorships and totalitarian regimes, it compromises the basic democratic principles of its foundation - namely, life, liberty and justice for all. — Benazir Bhutto

Lets build a monument for the veto. Lets build a monument for impotence and incapacity. — Zulfikar Ali Bhutto

We(Pakistan) will eat grass, even go hungry, but we will get one of our own (Atom bomb) ... We have no other choice! — Zulfikar Ali Bhutto

The best hijab is in the eyes of the beholder. — Benazir Bhutto

Military dictatorship is born from the power of the gun, and so it undermines the concept of the rule of law and gives birth to a culture of might, a culture of weapons, violence and intolerance. — Benazir Bhutto

I was a very shy girl who led an insulated life; it was only when I came to Oxford, and to Harvard before that, that suddenly I saw the power of people. I didn't know such a power existed, I saw people criticising their own president; you couldn't do that in Pakistan - you'd be thrown in prison. — Benazir Bhutto

[On Richard M. Nixon:] Americans began with a president who couldn't tell a lie and now they have one who can't tell the truth. — Benazir Bhutto

As children we had been taught that no price was too high to pay for our country. But the personal price to our family had been high. — Benazir Bhutto

General Musharraf needs my participation to give credibility to the electoral process, as well as to respect the fundamental right of all those who wish to vote for me. — Benazir Bhutto

No, I am not pregnant. I am fat. And, as the Prime Minister, its my right to be fat if I want to. — Benazir Bhutto

The Internet is the great equalizer.The technology which emanated from the Silicon Valley of California has more potential to ameliorate social inequality than any development in the history of the world, including the industrial revolution. — Benazir Bhutto

Freedom and liberty, the essays we wrote on them, papers for our tutors, for grades, but did we know the value of those words which we bandied about, of how precious they are, as precious as the air we breathe, the water we drink. — Benazir Bhutto

Well, I do write on political and social issues and the idea that one shouldn't - or the idea that we should censor ourselves - doesn't really work for me because it would be doing the government's job for them. And I'm not interested in doing that. I think what we need very much in Pakistan is to be able to discuss the corruption and the violence that really colours most of our life here. — Fatima Bhutto

Pakistan's future viability, stability and security lie in empowering its people and building political institutions. My goal is to prove that the fundamental battle for the hearts and minds of a generation can be accomplished only under democracy. — Benazir Bhutto

I don't fear death. I remember my last meeting with my father when he told me, You know, tonight when I will be killed, my mother and my father will be waiting for me. It makes me weepy ... but I don't think it can happen unless God wants it to happen because so many people have tried to kill me. — Benazir Bhutto

Whatever my aims and agendas were, I never asked for power. — Benazir Bhutto

I am planning to return and contest the October elections in Pakistan. — Benazir Bhutto

Above all you must study hard. Very few in Pakistan have the
opportunity you now have and you must take advantage of it. Never forget that
the money it is costing to send you comes from the land, from the people who
sweat and toil on those lands. You will owe a debt to them, a debt you can repay
with God's blessing by using your education to better their lives. — Benazir Bhutto

Bhutto represents everything the fundamentalists hate - a powerful, highly-educated woman operating in a man's world, seemingly unafraid to voice her independent views and, indeed, seemingly unafraid of anything, including the very real possibility that one day someone might succeed in killing her because of who she is. — Benazir Bhutto

The forces of moderation and democracy must, and will, prevail against extremism and dictatorship. I will not be intimidated ... Despite threats of death, I will not acquiesce to tyranny, but rather lead the fight against it. — Benazir Bhutto

If the people wanted my head I would bow without demur. If I had lost the confidence or respect of the people I would not want to live. The tragedy of the drama is that the very opposite is true. — Zulfikar Ali Bhutto

To make peace, one must be an uncompromising leader. To make peace, one must also embody compromise. — Benazir Bhutto

Bhutto's case was not a trial of murder, rather it was the overt murder of a trial - — Fatima Bhutto

In 1988, when democracy was restored, the military establishment was still very powerful. The extremist groups were still there. And when the aid and assistance to Pakistan was cut, we had to adopt harsh economic policies. So in a way, it showed that democracy doesn't pay, and the military was able to reassert itself. — Benazir Bhutto

I try to reach my father through the bars. He is so thin, almost wasted away from malaria, dysentery, starvation. But he pulls himself erect, and touches my hand. "Tonight I will be free," he says, a glow suffusing his face. "I will be joining my mother, my father. I am going back to the land of my ancestors in Larkana to become part of its soil, its scent, its air. There will be songs about me. I will become part of its legend." He smiles. "But it is very hot in Larkana." "I'll build a shade," I manage to say. — Benazir Bhutto

I grew up overnight on that day, Dec. 27, 2007. — Bilawal Bhutto Zardari

My mother always said democracy is the best revenge. — Bilawal Bhutto Zardari

Bhutto was the only celebrity I had ever stood behind a rope line to see. Chelsea and I were strolling around London during a holiday trip in the summer of 1989. — Hillary Rodham Clinton

What is a constitution? It is a booklet with twelve or ten pages. I can tear them away and say that tomorrow we shall live under a different system. Today, the people will follow wherever I lead. All the politicians including the once mighty Mr. Bhutto will follow me with tails wagging. — Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq

What is not recorded is not remembered. — Benazir Bhutto

I will take back Kashmir, all of it, and I will not leave behind a single inch of it because, like the other provinces, it belongs to Pakistan, — Bilawal Bhutto Zardari

Pakistan was once called the most allied ally of the United States. We are now the most non-allied. — Zulfikar Ali Bhutto

A regime that can suspend or abrogate the constitution and run the country on its whims and caprice should be ashamed of bringing on its lips the word "law". It is like prescribing a punishment for adultery after raping the country. It is like saying that Holy Quran is suspended nobody can escape from the Hadees. — Zulfikar Ali Bhutto

The next decade cannot be a decade of confrontation and contention. It cannot be east vs. West. It cannot be men vs. women. It cannot be Islam vs. Christianity. That is what the enemies of dialogue want. — Benazir Bhutto

I dream ... of a world where we can commit our social resources to the development of human life and not to its destruction — Benazir Bhutto

The sanction of force stands behind the medley of personal orders and regulations of Martial Law. The sanction of the people's consent stands behind the hierarchy of laws. In one situation, the population is regimented into acquiescence. In the other, the population voluntarily establishes a contract with Parliament. For this reason, one is called a regime and the other, a government. Martial law rests on the sanction of force and not on the sanction of law. — Zulfikar Ali Bhutto

Freedom is not an end. Freedom is a beginning. — Benazir Bhutto

In any conflict area, it is always the women who are the first point of attack. But I think the more they have seen of oppression and violence, they have gotten more brave, more strong, more fearless than they were. You see this refusal to just keep quiet and do as you are told. — Fatima Bhutto

Don't cry," Samarra whispered, "Nothing ever happens to the brave. — Fatima Bhutto

The military wants a system that protects its policies and privileges. — Benazir Bhutto

India to accept a ceasefire," he said. But there was nothing about reconciliation with India in the interview. Sulzberger noted that Bhutto "spoke gloomily of India" and implied that "India was behaving like a virtual satellite of Moscow." He made predictions similar to those Ayub made about the Soviet Union gaining ground in the subcontinent and about India being on the verge of breaking up. "By sponsoring Bangladesh you will see that India will lose West Bengal and Assam," he declared. "It is preposterous to think that in an association with — Husain Haqqani

Being nice should never be perceived as being weak. It's not a sign of weakness, it's a sign of courtesy, manners, grace, a woman's ability to make everyone ... feel at home, and it should never be construed as weakness ... — Benazir Bhutto

I think that our reliance on dynasty is part of the problem here, because dynasty is inherently undemocratic. It's a very entitled thing to suggest that only one member of one family can save a country of 180 million people. It has to be about people who live in constituencies coming forward to represent them, not the sort of parachuted, elite class that comes in, wins elections and then leaves. — Fatima Bhutto

Pakistan is heir to an intellectual tradition of which the illustrious exponent was the poet and philosopher Mohammad Iqbal. He saw the future course for Islamic societies in a synthesis between adherence to the faith and adjustment to the modern age. — Benazir Bhutto

I am chairman of the Pakistan People's Party. — Bilawal Bhutto Zardari

I know death comes. I've seen too much death, young death. — Benazir Bhutto

However, I think we have to go back to the American bogeyman - we have to understand that this is a country which currently allows American drones to fly over our skies and bomb our people on an almost weekly basis, this is a country that survives on American aid in the billions. Today's headline in the newspapers is about America stepping up arms supplies to Pakistan. — Fatima Bhutto

My Country
I don't have any caps left made back home
Nor any shoes that trod your roads
I've worn out your last shirt quite long ago
It was of Sile cloth
Now you only remain in the whiteness of my hair
Intact in my heart
Now you only remain in the whiteness of my hair
In the lines of my forehead
My country
-Nazim Hikmet — Fatima Bhutto

My father was the Prime Minister of Pakistan. My grandfather had been in politics, too; however, my own inclination was for a job other than politics. I wanted to be a diplomat, perhaps do some journalism - certainly not politics. — Benazir Bhutto

Bhutto brought up the coup in Afghanistan, which has resulted in deposing the country's monarchy and replacing it with a republic under a nationalist cousin of the king. Kissinger said he had discussed the matter with the Soviet Ambassador. "I told him if the recent coup in Afghanistan remained an internal Afghan affair, that would be one matter" he said, "but if it resurrected the Pashtunistan dispute, the U.S. would be engaged. This is the basic policy of the president. — Husain Haqqani

It's hard to deny that an alarming number of those who stood for peace, not war, were either killed by deranged lone gunmen or else died in suspicious circumstances. We refer of course to the likes of JFK, Martin Luther King, Benazir Bhutto, Bobby Kennedy and John Lennon, to name but a few. — James Morcan

All our problems, all our disputes, all our disagreements can be resolved quickly to mutual satisfaction if we address the question. — Benazir Bhutto

Bhutto's regime is remembered for having one of the worst human rights records in Pakistan's history, and her government did not allow the media freedoms she criticizes Musharraf for crushing. — Richard Engel

My father always would say, "My daughter will go into politics? My daughter will become prime minister", but it's not what I wanted to do. I would say, "No, Papa, I will never go into politics." As I've said before, this is not the life I chose; it chose me ... But I accepted the responsibility and I've never wavered in my commitment. — Benazir Bhutto

Pakistan is, I always feel, hopeful. You know, our system of government is not, and the system of foreign policy whereby we do whatever is asked of us as long as the price is right only proves to fundamentalist outfits and to militant groups that when we talk of things like democracy, when we talk of things like foreign policy, what we're really talking about is being pro-American. — Fatima Bhutto

Extremism can flourish only in an environment where basic governmental social responsibility for the welfare of the people is neglected. Political dictatorship and social hopelessness create the desperation that fuels religious extremism. — Benazir Bhutto

The political parties have unanimously rejected the one-man constitutional changes. — Benazir Bhutto

I am trying to stop being mystified. Important to concentrate on good hard facts. But which facts? One week before mu eighteenth birthday, on August 8th, did Pakistani troops in civilian clothing cross the cease-fire line in Kashmir and infiltrate the Indian sector, or did they not? In Delhi, Prime Minister Shastri announced "massive infiltration ... to subvert the state:; but here is Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, Pakistan's Foreign Minister, with his riposte: "We categorically deny any involvement in the rising against tyranny by the indigenous people of Kashmir". — Salman Rushdie

The Holy Book calls upon Muslims to resist tyranny. Dictatorships in Pakistan, however long, have, therefore, always collapsed in the face of this spirit. — Benazir Bhutto

It is one thing being able to contest an election and to give the people hope that I can be the next prime minister. It is a totally different situation where the people of Pakistan are told that the results are already taken and the leader of your choice is banned. — Benazir Bhutto

Greece is internationally famous for three reasons. First it has more islands than people. Second, it used to be a part of Turkey. Third, its national hero, Alexander the Great, was a Yugoslavian. — Fatima Bhutto

If things do not change, there will be nothing left to change. Either power must pass to the people or everything will perish. — Zulfikar Ali Bhutto

Oppression does not know the meaning of provincial boundaries. Aren't our energies better spent fighting the common enemy instead of each other? — Benazir Bhutto

I note that [Benazir] Bhutto demonstrates her own deep commitment to democracy by giving herself the title chairperson for life of the Pakistan Peoples Party. — Ann Coulter

The contradictions within Pakistan became still more apparent at my next event, a luncheon hosted in my honor by Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto and attended by several dozen accomplished women in Pakistan. It was like being rocketed forward several centuries in time. Among these women were academics and activists, as well as a pilot, a singer, a banker and a police deputy superintendent. They had their own ambitions and careers, and, of course, we were all guests of Pakistan's elected female leader. Benazir — Hillary Rodham Clinton

I'm not into smoke-filled rooms. I don't have the time for byzantine political intrigues. — Benazir Bhutto

It's true that General Musharraf opposes my return, seeing me as a symbol of democracy in the country. He is comfortable with dictatorship. I hope better sense prevails. — Benazir Bhutto

Like all children I had taken my father for granted. Now that I had lost him, I felt an emptiness that could never be filled. But I did not let myself cry, believing as a Muslim that tears pull a spirit earthward and won't let it be free. — Benazir Bhutto

The next few months are critical to Pakistan's future direction as a democratic state committed to promoting peace, fighting terrorism and working for social justice. — Benazir Bhutto

Calling an animal and
having it come, planting something and having it grow, become essential. It is
proof that I exist. — Benazir Bhutto

I had been born into a sort of democracy in which for ten years Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif kept replacing each other, none of their governments ever completing a term and always accusing each other of corruption. — Malala Yousafzai

I would like to help my people in any way I can. It's difficult times in Pakistan and we all have to help. — Bilawal Bhutto Zardari

I've never had a bank account in Switzerland since 1984. Why would the Swiss do this to me? Maybe the Swiss are trying to divert attention from the Holocaust gold scandal. — Benazir Bhutto

Democracy needs support, and the best support for democracy comes from other democracies. — Benazir Bhutto

Shahidullah Shahid said there is nothing Islamic in Pakistan's constitution. He clearly can't read. The truth is there is nothing Islamic in the TTP. — Bilawal Bhutto Zardari

But show me just this one thing, my darling, i seek a heart stained like a poppy flower. — Fatima Bhutto

Benazir Bhutto was an inspirational leader and an inspirational woman. — Malala Yousafzai

The United Nations charter gives every nation the right to self defence, therefore when the American embassies were bombed it was a matter of time before the Americans responded by going for what they suspected were the causes of the attack. — Benazir Bhutto

I have led an unusual life. I have buried a father killed at age 50 and two brothers killed in the prime of their lives. I raised my children as a single mother when my husband was arrested and held for eight years without a conviction - a hostage to my political career. — Benazir Bhutto

The people who resent me do so because I'm a woman, I'm young, and I'm a Bhutto. Well, the simple answer is, it doesn't matter that I'm a woman, it doesn't matter that I'm young, and it's a matter of pride that I'm a Bhutto. — Benazir Bhutto

I thought i could wake up this sleeping country with my cries, but still they sleep as if in a dream. — Fatima Bhutto

I am guiding you to seek truth from the facts of the historical conditions of our society and to identify the problems. The correct solutions will come with the correct identification of the problems. — Zulfikar Ali Bhutto

Democracy is the best revenge. — Benazir Bhutto

The military destabilised my government on politically motivated charges. — Benazir Bhutto

He said her name, repeatedly, so that she never lost the sound of his voice around it. So that every time someone called her name, she would be able to hear only Aman Erum. — Fatima Bhutto

The government I led gave ordinary people peace, security, dignity, and opportunity to progress. — Benazir Bhutto

There are two things. There was the moral responsibility, and that, first, is creating an atmosphere where the security forces can kill with impunity, where they can turn up at a place, shoot seven people - really at point-blank fashions - and then get away with it and be, in fact, promoted. And then there is the actual responsibility, the governmental responsibility. My aunt's government forbade us, initially, from filing a police report - which is every Pakistani citizen's right under the law. — Fatima Bhutto

My mother is a Shiite Muslim, as are most Iranians, while the rest of the
family was Sunni. But that was never a problem. Shiites and Sunnis had lived
side by side and intermarried for over a thousand years and our differences were
far fewer than our similarities. What was fundamental was that all Muslims,
regardless of their sects, surrender to the will of God, and believe that there is no
God but Allah and Mohammed is his last Prophet. That is the Quranic definition
of a Muslim and, in our family, what mattered most. — Benazir Bhutto

Certainly, if we believe in democracy and democratic systems, when [Benazir Bhutto] failed to pass any legislation, really, at all in her first two years in government during her first term and in fact had a tenure that was marked not only by gross corruption but by human rights abuses, that should have been a time for people to say, "Well, OK, we've given you an opportunity and you haven't bettered the institutions, you haven't strengthened the democratic cause - we may not vote you back." — Fatima Bhutto