Begum Nusrat Bhutto (Persian: نصرت بوتو; Sindhi: نصرت ڀٽو; Urdu: نُصرت بُھٹّو; née Ispahani [Persian: اسپهانی]; 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.
Ispahani joined a paramilitary women's force in 1950, but left a year later when she married Zulfikar Ali Bhutto.
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.
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.
[6] 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.
[11][12] 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.
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.
[17] 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.
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.
Pakistan International Airlines ran special flights from Islamabad, Lahore, and Karachi to Sukkur for those who wish to attend the funeral.