THATTA: His mother was assassinated on the campaign trail and his grandfather was executed by a military dictator, but that has not prevented Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari from seeking the job they both held: prime minister of Pakistan.

Oxford-educated and single, 29-year-old Bhutto-Zardari is campaigning himself for the first time, traversing the sprawling plains of his native Sindh province to try to revive the fortunes of his struggling, left-of-centre Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) ahead of the July 25 general election.

He was still in university when his mother, two-time prime minister Benazir Bhutto, was assassinated in 2007 while campaigning to restore democracy after military rule. Her father, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, also a prime minister, was hanged after being deposed in a military coup.

“I didn’t choose this life. I didn’t actively go out and pursue it. My mother always used to say that she didn’t choose this life, it chose her. In the same way I feel like it applies to me,” Mr Bhutto-Zardari told Reuters, as he stood on the roof of his open-top, 20-foot-high bulletproof bus.

Asked if he is ever afraid while campaigning, he answered briefly: “No”. He then pivoted to discussing a “climate of fear” in the lead-up to the elections that some activists blame on the military.

PPP’s prime ministerial candidate on campaign trail seeks to revive policies dear to his mother

In one of the first interviews since being named PPP’s prime ministerial candidate, he also criticised fellow Oxford graduate and Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf chief Imran Khan — a potential coalition partner — for doing the politics of hate.

Flanked by supporters on either side of the single-lane highway, Mr Bhutto-Zardari was showered with rose petals as he waved to thousands of people who waited to catch a glimpse of the youngest of the political dynasty that many call the Pakistani equivalent of the Kennedys.

Despite the feel-good feeling in the crowds, election time is always tense in Pakistan, which has been ruled by the military for almost half of the 70 years since independence.

The outgoing Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) government has accused the military and courts of playing a role in the ouster of premier Nawaz Sharif last year and helping Imran Khan’s PTI. Khan, a former cricket captain of Pakistan, denies the accusation and calls the PML-N a graft-ridden “mafia”.“I think there is absolutely a history in Pakistan of an overactive role for our establishment and the PPP firmly believes that should not be the case,” replied Mr Bhutto-Zardari when asked about military’s involvement in politics.

“There is absolutely a feeling that certain candidates are feeling pressurised, are feeling certain political parties are being supported in ways that they shouldn’t be,” he added.

“I believe everyone should believe in the people of Pakistan, trust the people of Pakistan to make their own choices.”

Power broker

Mr Bhutto-Zardari’s convoy which started from the town of Thatta — the medieval capital of Sindh — later headed north to Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa provinces, hoping to revive the vote base the party had lost in the 2013 polls.

A Gallup nationwide poll in March put his party’s popularity at 17 per cent, with Khan’s PTI at 24pc and Sharif’s PML-N at 36pc.

One of the PPP’s challenges is overcoming the image of former president and party’s co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari in the backdrop of numerous corruption allegations which have never been proved in a court but may contrast with Mr Khan’s relentless anti-graft message, according to party insiders and some analysts.

I didn’t choose this life, I didn’t actively go out and pursue it. My mother always used to say that she didn’t choose this life, it chose her. In the same way I feel like it applies to me.Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari

Mr Zardari spent 11 years in jail on charges of corruption and murder, but was never convicted. He has always maintained his innocence and remains a party leader and adviser to his son.

Although Mr Bhutto-Zardari is campaigning to become prime minister, many political analysts believe the PPP may at best become a power broker if no party wins a clear majority as it seems. He has also indicated he would be willing to join a possible coalition government though he did not say whether he would prefer the PML-N or Khan’s PTI.

He said Mr Khan’s conservative PTI was “peddling the politics of hate, of polarisation, [and] the politics of divisiveness”.

“It may win Imran Khan an election but it has disastrous consequences for the youth of Pakistan and Pakistani society,” said the young PPP chairman.

He has been quoted in local media as calling the PML-N “cruel rulers” and saying that it had “decided to eliminate the poor, and not poverty.”

Mr Bhutto-Zardari said his ambitions were not just about becoming prime minister but bringing back the policies which were dear to his mother, Benazir Bhutto.

On the campaign trail, he frequently mentions her in his speeches. “We have to keep BB’s promise. We have to save Pakistan,” he says in Urdu, using the initials by which his mother was commonly known.

“There is no greater sense of fulfilment in a son’s life than to feel like he is continuing with his mother’s incomplete mission,” adds the Bhutto family scion.

Published in Dawn, July 4th, 2018