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Pakistan Elections: Meet Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, Progressive Candidate for Prime Minister

  • "I didn't choose this life; I didn't actively go out and pursue it," said the son of assassinated Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto. | Photo: Reuters

Published 22 July 2018
Opinion

"I didn't choose this life; I didn't actively go out and pursue it," said the son of assassinated Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto.

Among the three top contenders for prime minister in this year's Pakistan elections is the son of assassinated Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto: ambitious 29-year-old Pakistani People's Party (PPP) Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari.

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Praised by some as Pakistan's Kennedy, Bhutto Zardari comes from a family of politicians. The only son of a powerful couple, the former prime minister and her husband, former President Asif Ali Zardari, he was born into the world of politics.

"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," Bhutto Zardari said.

When he was three months old, his mother followed in the footsteps of her own father, Prime Minister Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto, and became the country's first female prime minister in 1988. She held the position until 1990, but was later re-elected in 1993 for another three years.

In 1999, when Bhutto's father was arrested and imprisoned on corruption charges, he and his mother left the country and spent the following years in Dubai and London in self-imposed exile.

Studying for his graduate degree at Oxford in 2007, Bhutto Zardari received news of his mother's assassination at a political rally. He immediately returned home and became politically active within her party, the PPP, where he quickly rose through the ranks before becoming chairman.

Bhutto Zardari is now proposing a number of progressive initiatives to bring gender equality, as well as labor and environmental rights, to Pakistan.

His mother's legacy has carried over: thousands of Pakistanis attend his rallies, showering him with rose petals in a show of support.

"There is no greater sense of fulfilment in a son's life than to feel like he is continuing with his mother's incomplete missions," he said. "We have to keep BB's promise. We have to save Pakistan."

Bhutto Zardari intends to realize his mother's aspirations by bringing prosperity and youth employment to Pakistan; ensuring that state authorities fulfil their responsibilities to impoverished communities, and eradicating hunger and malnutrition.

"The parliament remained a silent spectator in the time of crisis. The state institutions appear to be at loggerhead," he said.

The PPP candidate has shown interest in possibly forming a coalition, though he has refrained from revealing which of his two competitors he might join forces with.

A coalition may prove difficult, however, given his criticism of his counterpart with the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf (PTI), Imran Khan. He also attacked the Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz) for "peddling the politics of hate, of polarization, the politics of divisiveness," saying they are "cruel rulers" who, rather than eliminate poverty, have decided to "eliminate the poor."

Bhutto Zardari believes that if a coalition forms, his father would be the "best choice" for prime minister.

Some analysts say the fact Zardari has been charged with murder and corruption may cost the PPP valuable votes, but others say the effects may prove minimal.

Since the early 1970s, the party has taken control of the nation on five separate occasions – most recently in 2008. It survived a military dictatorship under Zia-ul-Haq, which ended after his death in 1988. It then became the largest contender in a two-party system with the Islami Jamhoori Ittehad (IJI) party, later succeeded by the Pakistan Muslim League-N (PML-N). From that moment, the PPP became Pakistan's most influential leftist party.

Over 100 million Pakistani citizens will be called to the polls for the general elections on July 25 to determine the 342 members of the National Assembly, the lower chamber of Parliament. Sixty of these seats will be filled by female candidates; an additional 10 will represent religious minorities.

Among the other parties vying for the majority seat in parliament are the presidential party and center-right conservative group Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), and the third-way centrist Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI).

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