ISLAMABAD, Dec 10: Ineligible to become a member of the National Assembly for another two years, Bilawal Bhutto Zardari has eased into active politics to cover for his father who had to leave the country last week for Dubai.

President Asif Ali Zardari’s absence has allowed the 23-year-old symbolic chairman to take reins of the Pakistan People’s Party, which has so far been steered by his father through an unusual position of co-chairman.

“Bilawal is in Pakistan on the instructions of President Zardari as he wants to dispel an impression that he and his family have fled,” said presidential spokesman Farhatullah Khan Babar, who refused to say anything about the president’s return.

“The president is making a smooth progress and feels better. The doctors treating him are confident about his early recovery,” Mr Babar quoted the president’s personal physician as saying on Saturday evening.

He said Mr Bilawal had been formally named the party’s chairman after the assassination of his mother Benazir Bhutto, but he had not been performing his role because of his studies. “Now he has completed his education and is getting engaged in different political activities,” he added. The PPP had announced formal launching of Bilawal on Aug 7 last year when he was scheduled to address a public meeting in Birmingham, United Kingdom, along with his father. But it was cancelled at the eleventh hour after criticism that President Zardari was undertaking the visit at a time when the people of Sindh had been devastated by the catastrophic floods.

Mr Babar said there would be no formal launching of the party’s chairman. In fact, he added, Mr Zardari had stayed away from Nusrat Bhutto’s Chehlum last month in Naudero only to provide an opportunity to his only son to manage the affairs and represent the party.

“He shook hands with everybody who had come to offer condolences and later held meetings with party MNAs,” former PPP information secretary Fauzia Wahab said. She said she believed that Bilawal had the vision and skills to lead the party.

“Bilawal has already facilitated an interface through video link of PPP media managers with the party’s lobbyist, Mark Siegel,” she said, adding that the young chairman kept himself abreast with national and international developments through web and social networks.

Bilawal already seems keen on performing his role as party chairman, particularly concerned about the upcoming Senate and general elections. He has held meetings with senior party office-bearers, including Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani and Pakistan Muslim League-Q leaders, to discuss possible seat adjustments.

“He will lead the manifesto and programme development for the party for the next general elections,” said a source in the PPP.

Some party insiders disputed a popular perception that Bilawal is young and may not have developed his political faculties.

“Bilawal has independent opinions about events as well as party affairs,” one of them said. “At one of the meetings, he (Bilawal) expressed his displeasure over his father’s watered down response to the killing of Punjab governor Salman Taseer. He thought President Zardari should have taken a stronger position to denounce religious radicalisation that led to the governor’s murder,” he added.