A warning of the dangerous game she played was fresh in her mind: her brother Shahnawazhad had been found poisoned in his Cannes flat the previous year. The killer was never caught, though political motives were suspected.
After General Zia was killed in an air crash, Miss Bhutto stood for prime minister. By now she was an icon both in Pakistan and the West.
Her opponents lambasted her as a stooge of America and a "gangster in bangles". There were assassination plots too.
But after all the ballyhoo and a historic victory, her first term in office was a grave disappointment.
In spite of her promises to improve the lives of the poor, little was achieved and in 1990 she was sacked by the president amid allegations of corruption. Many of the claims surrounded the activities of her husband, who was arrested and investigated.
It was deeply humiliating. But Miss Bhutto regrouped and in 1993 was elected again.
Once again Zardari, her investment minister as well as husband, was at the centre of sleaze allegations.
It was claimed that he had earned millions in illegal commission for brokering government deals on goods ranging from jet fighters to gold, and after three years in office Bhutto's government was again dismissed in disgrace.
By then the former cricketer Imran Khan, a contemporary at Oxford, had become one of her sternest critics.
Shortly after the Bhutto government fell he told a rally: "The bowler has taken the first wicket, and you know whose wicket that was - Asif Ali Zardari, who holds the world championship for corruption.
"And the second wicket to fall was that of Benazir Bhutto, the world champion in telling lies, who has a shawl on her head, prayer beads in her hands, and thievery in her heart."
When the cheers died down, he added: "Now, if you will let me be the bowler, and you take the catches, we can bowl them all out and rid Pakistan of this political mafia."
Zardari was arrested once again. This time he spent eight years in jail being investigated, though never successfully prosecuted, on a variety of charges, including complicity in the shooting of his wife's estranged activist brother Murzata Bhutto.
Documents were produced which showed that the family had secret bank accounts and offshore companies in the Isle of Man and Switzerland, and Miss Bhutto was accused of money laundering. In 2003 a Swiss court found her guilty and she was given a six-month suspended jail sentence.
Her £4.5million ten-bedroomed mansion and country estate near Godalming in Surrey was bought with the proceeds of her corruption, Pakistani prosecutors alleged. They launched court proceedings in the Isle of Man to recover some £ 750million.
Miss Bhutto denied all charges.
Nevertheless, she left Pakistan for London in 1999 shortly before fresh court proceedings and remained abroad, eventually settling with her three children in Dubai. Her husband, who has always protested his innocence, was allowed to join them in 2004.
After the 9/11 attacks in America in 2001 the political faultlines in Pakistan shifted once again, and in October this year Miss Bhutto and her husband were granted amnesty on the outstanding criminal allegations against them in Pakistan.
President Musharraf allowed Miss Bhutto to make a triumphant homecoming and prepare for next year's national elections.
Her political momentum was building. But within hours of her return a suicide bomb attack narrowly failed to assassinate her, killing more than 130 people in and around her bus in Karachi.
Yesterday there was no such miraculous escape for this remarkable, if flawed, woman.
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