New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern met Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto on Thursday and expressed good wishes for him and paid tribute to his mother former premier Benazir Bhutto Shaheed.
Jacinda Ardern told Bilawal Bhutto that her daughter was also born on June 21 – the birthday of Benazir Bhutto Shaheed.
She said “In June 1989, the prime minister of Pakistan stood on this spot and delivered the commencement address titled Democratic Nations Must Unite. She spoke about her journey, the importance of citizenry, representative government, human rights and democracy.”
She also shared her personal experience of meeting Benazir in Geneva in June 2007, saying it was a conference that drew together progressive parties from around the world and Benazir was one of them.
She continued: “Sev en months later, she was assassinated. Now there will be opinions and differing perspectives written about all of us as political leaders.
“Two things that history will not contest about Benazir Bhutto — she was the first Muslim lady prime minister elected in an Islamic country when women in power were a rare thing. She was also the first to give birth in office. The second and only other leader to have given birth in office, almost 30 years later, was me, Jacinda Ardern said.
