structural:summarization, stylistic:style_transfer
Zulfikar's death and Benazir's arrest: 1977–1984

Other women on the subcontinent had picked up the political banners of their husbands, brothers, and fathers before me. The legacies of political families passing down through the women had become a South Asian tradition: Indira Gandhi in India; Sirimavo Bandaranaike in Sri Lanka; Fatima Jinnah and my own mother in Pakistan. I just never thought it would happen to me.

— Bhutto on the impact of her father.

In July 1977, Zulfikar Bhutto—who had just been re-elected in a general election —was overthrown in a military coup ("Operation Fair Play") led by Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq, the Chief of Army Staff. Both Zulfikar and Benazir believed that Zia's coup had been assisted by the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA); Zulfikar claimed that in a 1975 meeting, U.S. diplomat Henry Kissinger had told him that the U.S. would make "a horrible example" of him if he did not terminate Pakistan's efforts to build a nuclear bomb. Now in control of the country, Zia suspended the constitution, and initiated a regime that combined military rule with social programs designed to further the Islamisation of Pakistani society according to Islamic fundamentalist principles. Socialists, intellectuals, and journalists were arrested. Zulfikar, too, was arrested, initially for less than a month. After a crowd of over one million people greeted Zulfikar's release in Karachi and demonstrations were held in support of the ousted president, Zia decided to eliminate him permanently.

In September, Zulfikar was re-arrested and charged with the 1974 murder of Muhammad Ahmed Khan Kasuri, the father of Ahmed Raza Kasuri, a vocal critic of Zulfikar's government. After the coup, Bhutto's brothers were sent abroad to canvass international support for their father. Bhutto and her mother remained in Pakistan, although they were repeatedly detained for short periods. When she was able, Bhutto visited her father in prison. She and her mother put out a book about their father and encouraged PPP supporters to demonstrate in support of him. She also assisted in the preparation of his defence case, which was put before first the Lahore High Court, which sentenced him to death, and then the Supreme Court, which upheld that decision. Former U.S. attorney general Ramsey Clark attended the trial, relating that it was a kangaroo court and that Zulfikar did not receive a fair trial. Just before his execution, Zulfikar urged his wife and daughter to leave Pakistan, but they refused. He was executed by hanging in April 1979. Benazir and Nusrat were then imprisoned for six months, before being released and placed under house arrest for a further six months. The two women were only fully released in April 1980.

After the coup, Zulfikar had appointed his wife co-chair of the PPP, while in October 1977 Benazir was appointed to the PPP's central committee. After Zulfikar's death, Benazir replaced his role in the party, becoming its co-leader. In February 1981, she formally established the Movement for the Restoration of Democracy (MRD), a group that brought together the PPP with other political parties in the country: the Pakistan Muslim League, Pakistan Democratic Party, Mazdoor Kisan Party, National Awami Party, Quomi Mahaz-e-Azadi, Jamiat-i-Ulema-i-Islam, and the Tahrik-i-Istiqlal. The MRD called for a four-point program: an end to martial law, the restoration of the 1973 constitution, parliamentary elections, and the transfer of political power from the military to the elected representatives. There was nevertheless much mutual suspicion among the parties in the MRD, with Bhutto having reluctantly allowed groups that firmly opposed her father's government to join.

From abroad, her brothers, Murtaza and Shahnawaz, turned to paramilitary action, founding the Al Zulfikar group which trained its members to carry out acts of assassination and sabotage to oust Zia's military government. After Al Zulfikar orchestrated the 1981 Pakistan International Airlines hijacking, the government used this as the pretext for re-arresting Bhutto and her mother in March. Bhutto disapproved of the hijacking, believing that it strengthened Zia's hand; that she was punished for it may have exacerbated tensions with her brothers. In July 1981, Nusrat was released so that she could seek medical treatment for cancer abroad, but Bhutto was not. She was kept for a time in Karachi before being moved to Sukkur prison and then back again to Karachi. During much of this period, she was held in solitary confinement, and experienced a range of health problems, including hair loss, gynaecological issues, and anorexia. In December, she was moved into house arrest, where she would remain for two years. In the United States—a key ally of Zia's regime—Peter Galbraith helped rally support for Bhutto, including from the politicians Claiborne Pell and James Buckley. When Zia visited Washington D.C. in December 1982, they raised the issue of Bhutto's imprisonment with him. As international pressure mounted, the Pakistani government agreed to release her, placing her on a flight to Geneva in January 1984.