Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari is currently the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) Chairman. He succeeded his mother, the late Benazir Bhutto, for the position after she was assassinated on December 27, 2007. He is the only son of former premier Benazir and President Asif Ali Zardari and was made PPP chairman days after his mother’s assassination in Rawalpindi.
Biography
Born in September 1988, three months before Benazir as elected Pakistan’s first female prime minister, Bilawal spent most of life abroad. He left Pakistan in 1999 when Benazir went into self-exile with the family dividing time between London and Dubai.
In 2007, he joined the Christ Church College at Oxford University to study modern history and politics. However, a few months later, his mother was assassinated and he was handed the reigns of PPP. Also in the event, Zardari took the PPP co-chairman’s post in order to manage the party until Bilawal finished his education and remains PPP’s de facto chief.
Since graduating from Oxford in 2010, Bilawal began active engagement in the party’s affairs and in Pakistani politics. However, he made his official political debut on December 27, 2012, Benazir’s fifth death anniversary, with an emotionally charged speech.
Bilawal was also declared Tumandar (chief) of the Zardari tribe in May 2011 following the demise of Hakim Ali Zardari, his paternal grandfather.
He has two sisters, both younger to him – Bakhtawar and Aseefa.
As PPP chief Hailing from a political family with a mother who suffered incarceration and self-exile and was later assassinated and a grandfather who led the country before being hanged in the aftermath of a deeply divisive trial, Bilawal’s surroundings have been ripe for training in Pakistani politics and understanding its dynamics.
In order to take more interest in the party’s affairs, Bilawal has started participating in important meetings, along with his father and other senior PPP leaders. He has also chaired high-level meetings of the party, in order to better engage in his role as chairman.
Keen on performing his role of party chief, Bilawal has been reported as "particularly concerned" about the coming general elections. The young leader also engaged in discussions with senior party office-bearers over seat adjustments with PML-Q.
Although young, Bilawal is also said to hold “independent opinions” regarding various issues of national interest, as well as on the affairs of the party.
His political engagements increased in December 2011 when he took over the party’s affairs following Zardari’s sudden and much-speculated-upon trip to Dubai on account of medical treatment.
He has also called for cooperation among political parties in order to tackle the issue of terrorism and "to protect Jinnah's Pakistan from the threat of the Taliban".
In the wake of Salman Taseer’s killing, Bilawal vowed to defend “the Christian and other minority communities in Pakistan” and condemned the murder of Punjab’s governor for seeking changes to blasphemy laws.
Bilawal also accused former president General (retd) Pervez Musharraf of ‘murdering’ Benazir by ‘sabotaging’ her security.
On Zulfikar Bhutto’s death anniversary in 2012, Bilawal said the Supreme Court should “apologise in principle for the judicial murder” of his grandfather “to the nation”. Subsequently, the apex court summoned the transcript of the speech for examination.
In the wake of the Salala incident that claimed the lives of 24 Pakistani soldiers, Bilawal called on US President Barack Obama to show “some courage” and apologise to Pakistan for the Nato air attack and bring US-Pakistan relations back on track.
Recently, Bilawal seems to have acquired an individual fan following, signified by the Bilawal Bhutto Lovers Organisation (BLO) of which posters, billboards and graffiti have been seen in different areas of Karachi.
Bilawal is too young, by just a few months, to contest the 2013 polls. But he is seen as someone who will play an important role as putting a face to the PPP election campaign. He brings young blood to the party at a time when the Pakistan Tehrik-i-Insaaf has made a visible dent in the youth vote bank. Whether he is able to bring the same kind of charisma that his mother brought to the table is yet to be seen.
— Research and text by Soonha Abro
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