Bilawal Zardari Bhutto hopes to save Pakistan with 'Bhuttoism' movement
Bilawal
Oxford-educated 29-year-old Bhutto Zardari is campaigning himself for the first time and will contest from two seats, Larkana-I and Karachi South-I.
Bilawal Bhutto Zardari is all set to contest in his first ever general elections in Pakistan to be held on July 25. His party, the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) has made Bilawal the candidate for prime minister, a post his mother Benazir Bhutto once held.
Bilawal was born in September 1988, three months before his mother was elected prime minister for the first time.
She went into self-imposed exile in April 1999, taking Bilawal and his two younger sisters with her, and divided their time between London and Dubai. For most of this time, his father Asif Ali Zardari was in jail in Pakistan on blackmail and corruption charges.
At the age of 19, Bilawal was appointed the chairman of the PPP on December 30, 2007 - three days after his mother's assassination. Asif Zardari also announced Bilawal’s name change from “Bilawal Zardari” to “Bilawal Bhutto Zardari”. At that time, he was still studying at Christ Church, Oxford University.
Despite suddenly being pulled to the top political level, he maintained a low profile, focusing instead on finishing his history degree at Oxford University.
He returned to Pakistan in 2010 and took part in several meetings. He has also been involved in more active roles as PPP chairman since then.
Bilawal officially joined politics on December 27, 2012, which was Benazir’s fifth death anniversary, with an emotionally charged speech.
"If you want to save Pakistan, the only answer is Bhuttoism and the PPP," he said, referring to his party's acronym.
Symbolically, he stood on the roof of the same bus where his mother was assassinated exactly five years ago in a gun and bomb attack after holding an election rally in the city of Rawalpindi in 2007.
In 2013, Bilawal turned 25, thus becoming eligible to run for the National Assembly, as the Pakistan Constitution requires the minimum age of lawmakers to be 25. Asif Ali Zardari refuted the speculations and announced that Bilawal will contest the next general election due in 2018.
Now, the Oxford-educated 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 People's Party (PPP) ahead of a July 25 general election.
Bhutto will contest from two seats, NA-200 (Larkana-I) and NA-246 (Karachi South-I).