Benazir Bhutto: Leadership And Legacy.

June 21 is the longest day of the year. It is also the birthday of Pakistan's slain Prime Minister, Benazir Bhutto-the first woman to head the government of a Muslim majority country after her long and arduous struggle against a brutal military dictatorship. She was elected to this office twice. A fierce and fearless champion of democracy, human rights, international peace and progressive values, Benazir was truly ahead of her time.

Her courage was as extraordinary as her accomplishments and while she may have been physically eliminated by Islamist terrorists fifteen years ago, she remains a beacon of light on the horizon of global politics. A world in the throes of war, authoritarianism and inter-civilisational strife can draw important lessons from the life and legacy of Benazir Bhutto.

An unwavering commitment to the ideals we cherish is a first. Indeed, there will always be obstacles to surmount and quite often, it entails personal sacrifices that one must be prepared to make. Fate took a cruel course when Benazir returned home after graduating from Oxford.

Her father-Pakistan's first democratically elected Prime Minister, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto was deposed and sent to the gallows for a murder he did not commit. For years, her life alternated between house arrest and solitary confinement in sordid conditions but nothing dampened her resolve to restore civilian rule in her country and she did. However, both of her governments were dismissed before time at the behest of obscurantist forces that could not see Pakistan forge ahead under the dynamic leadership of a modern young woman.

Benazir Bhutto's detractors levelled all sorts of baseless allegations to undermine her popularity, attack her family and banish her from the political scene but she was not deterred. Despite threats of death, she returned to her homeland after eight years of exile to save it from falling into the hands of militants who had captured major city centres in the country's north-west.

In the process, she lost the battle for her life but the ensuing government of her party, the PPP, won the war against terrorism, preventing Pakistan from becoming the epicentre of global jihad. Her son, Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari-only nineteen when his mother was assassinated-continues this fight.

Freedom is fragile and needs friends. For the same reason, Benazir Bhutto proposed an association of democratic states that would back one another and promote this universal good. Democracy leads...