IT was a scene Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari’s mother would have loved: a room packed with journalists, TV cameras and microphones, with the world watching and listening to every word.

The Gore Hotel at Queen’s Gate in London was the setting for a press conference for Benazir Bhutto’s son, the newly-anointed chairman of the Pakistan People’s Party. Half an hour before the scheduled appearance of young Bilawal at 11am on Tuesday, there was not even standing room left in the rather small conference hall. Some of London’s best-known journalists were forced to sit on the floor or stand in corners.

Flanked by aunt Sanam Bhutto and Wajid Shamsul Hasan on the right, and historian Victoria Schofield, Bilawal was calm and composed as he read his prepared statement. Basically, he explained that he was made the chairman of the PPP “because it was recognised at this moment of crisis the party needed a close association with my mother through the blood line… Politics is also in my blood. And although I admit that my experience to date is limited, I intend to learn.”

He went on to appeal for privacy during his student life, asking that he be “left alone” during his time at Oxford.

He concluded the short statement by asserting that he and his family did not believe that a government inquiry into his mother’s assassination would reveal the truth, citing the destruction of forensic evidence.

The question-and-answer session was moderated by Simon Walker, a friend of the Bhutto family, and during the next half an hour, Bilawal fielded questions from some of the toughest journalists in London.

The bulk of the grilling was focussed on getting Bilawal’s take on why he was appointed to head Pakistan’s biggest political party, given his inexperience, his age, and the fact that he had spent most of his life out of the country.

Jeremy Paxman, considered the attack dog of TV interviewers, asked Bilawal bluntly how he expected to relate to Pakistan’s people and its problems as he had hardly ever lived there.

A few pointed queries made it clear that people here did not think much of dynastic politics. Paxman made the point by accusing the Bhuttos of treating the PPP as a piece of ‘family furniture’ to be handed down as an inheritance. Lyse Doucet from the BBC asked if he would heal the rifts in the Bhutto family by reaching out to his cousins. And one pointed question about Asif Zardari’s reputation being a handicap in his running the PPP would have embarrassed any son.

Sensibly, Bilawal kept his answers simple and short. Where his mother would have used her eloquence and her experience to use each question as a platform for a speech, her son was conscious of his limitations.

When he was asked about the possibility of his father’s reputation losing votes, he simply made the point that Asif Zardari had served over eight years in jail without any charge being proved against him. He added that if people felt uncomfortable with the PPP’s choice of leadership, they would not vote for it.

Apart from being relaxed under so much pressure, Bilawal showed glimpses of a wry sense of humour. When asked if he feared for his life, he answered: “Actually, I fear more for my privacy than I do for my life.”

Low-key, almost subdued, he showed a hint of passion when asked what would happen to the PPP if there were no more Bhuttos to lead it. Defiantly, he rapped the table and exclaimed: “A Bhutto will emerge from every house in Pakistan!” And poignantly, he made the point that with his mother, “Pakistan had lost its best hope for democracy, but not its only hope.”

After the press conference was over, a few hardened journalists stayed behind to exchange their impressions. The consensus was that the young man had been impressive in a quiet sort of way. He certainly lacked the Bhutto flamboyance that was so evident in his mother and grandfather. But he had a certain gravitas unusual in somebody his age.

There was a reserve, perhaps cultivated deliberately to ward off a prying media during a turbulent childhood, that was beyond his years. Even Paxman, a journalist who has probably devoured more politicians than he has hot meals, agreed that Bilawal had handled himself very well under trying circumstances.