Born in 1988, Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari has been active in politics for over a decade but is yet to follow the footsteps of his mother Benazir Bhutto and grandfather Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, and become the prime minister.

The Bhutto-Zardari scion spent most of his childhood outside Pakistan, shuttling between London and Dubai, after Benazir went into self-exile in 1999. In 2007, he joined the Christ Church College at Oxford to study modern history and politics. Tragedy struck that same year after his mother was assassinated weeks before the elections.

Days later, Bilawal added Bhutto to his surname and was made the PPP chairperson. However, since he was still studying, his father Asif Ali Zardari became co-chairperson so he could manage the party’s affairs till Bilawal’s graduation.

Following his graduation in 2010, Bilawal entered politics, making his political debut in December 2012 on the fifth anniversary of his mother’s killing with an emotionally charged speech.

Bilawal contested elections for the first time in 2018 and became a member of the National Assembly. He also led the party’s election campaigns in Gilgit-Baltistan and Azad Jammu and Kashmir in 2020 and 2021, respectively. In 2022, the PPP chairperson led a long march from Karachi to Islamabad against the then PTI government.

After the Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) — a coalition of opposition parties — ousted then-prime minister Imran Khan in April 2021 with a successful no-confidence vote, Bilawal was appointed foreign minister — the country’s youngest — in the newly formed cabinet led by former fierce rival Shehbaz Sharif.

During his tenure, he went on several tours, from Moscow to Japan to the United States, in a bid to forge stronger ties. However, there were two events during his 2.5-year-long stint that earned him a lot of acclaim, and both were linked to India.

At a news conference inside the United Nations in Dec 2022, Bilawal had described Modi as “the butcher of Gujarat,” questioning why instead of being punished for the 2002 massacre of over 2,000 Muslims in Gujarat, he was made the prime minister of India.

His statement was in response to his Indian counterpart S. Jaishankar’s remarks who had called Pakistan “the host of Osama bin Laden” and the “perpetrator of terrorism”. While the comments were heavily criticised in India — where protests were staged — they were widely praised back home.

A few months later, Bilawal became the first Pakistani foreign minister to visit India in a decade. The trip, according to the PPP chairman, had succeeded in “countering the false narrative” of the Modi government that every Muslim was a terror suspect.

Bilawal has also time and again called for an end to what he calls “traditional politics”. During his farewell speech on the floor of the outgoing National Assembly, the PPP chairman had implored his own father, Asif Ali Zardari, as well as PML-N supremo Nawaz Sharif to make decisions that would make politics easier for the younger generation, which he said was losing hope in the country’s future.

However, last year, Zardari said Bilawal was “not fully trained” in politics and would “take time” to get up to speed. Despite the former president’s statement, the PPP approved Bilawal’s nomination as its candidate for prime minister on January 3.

Key stances:

• Bilawal calls himself a strong proponent of democracy and has repeatedly stressed that only democracy can solve the people’s problems.

• He has also stated that the PPP is a “pro-poor” party and announced plans for doubling salaries and expanding housing and health services if elected.

• Bilawal has emphasised that stronger ties with other countries are essential to fixing domestic issues.

• He has been vocal about increasing the role of youth in the country’s politics, urging veteran politicians to quit and make decisions that will make things easier for the next generation, including him and Maryam.

• He has also vowed to “end politics of revenge”.

• He has insisted that political parties should seek an impartial establishment and judiciary.

• The PPP chairperson has said his party will establish a South Punjab province if voted into power.

Header artwork by Abdul Sattar Abbasi