Zulfikar Ali Bhutto NPk (5 January 1928 – 4 April 1979) was a Pakistani barrister, politician and statesman who served as the fourth president of Pakistan from 1971 to 1973 and later as the ninth prime minister of Pakistan from 1973 until his overthrow in 1977. He was also the founder and first chairman of the Pakistan People's Party (PPP) from 1967 until his execution in 1979.
Born in Sindh and educated at the University of California, Berkeley and the University of Oxford, Bhutto trained as a barrister at Lincoln's Inn before entering politics. He was a cabinet member during president Iskandar Mirza's tenure, holding various ministries during president Ayub Khan's military rule from 1958. Bhutto became the foreign minister in 1963, advocating for Operation Gibraltar in Kashmir, leading to the 1965 war with India. Following the Tashkent Declaration, he was dismissed from the government. Bhutto established the PPP in 1967, focusing on a left-wing and socialist agenda, and contested the 1970 general election, arising as the largest political party in Western Pakistan with a landslide victory in Punjab and Sindh; and a coalition victory with National Awami Party in Balochistan and the North-West Frontier. The Awami League, victorious with a landslide in East Pakistan, and the PPP were unable to agree on power transfer, leading to civil unrest in the east — further intensified by military action under Yahya Khan's military government — followed by a civil war and a war with India, resulting in the creation of Bangladesh. After Pakistan's loss in the east, Yahya resigned amidst a military revolt against him and Bhutto assumed the presidency in December 1971, imposing emergency rule and securing a ceasefire on the western front.