Benazir Bhutto’s Successor is Her Son Bilawal Bhutto Zardari

Benazir Bhutto’s Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) on Sunday chose her 19-year-old son Bilawal Bhutto Zardari as her successor and appointed him as Chairman of the party. (Interestingly, Benazir Bhutto became chief of the PPP at the age of 31 following the assassination of her father, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto).

While Bhutto’s husband, Asif Ali Zardari, was appointed co-chairman of the PPP. These decisions were taken by the party’s Central Executive Committee in a closed-door meeting. The PPP has decided to participate in the forthcoming elections in Pakistan.

“It catapults Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, an Oxford University student with no political experience, to the center of Pakistan’s tumultuous public life. Bhutto’s husband Asif Ali Zardari, 51, is powerbroker in the party who served as environment minister in her second government.” More here…

The Time magazine says: “The young (Bilawal) Bhutto, Benazir’s only son, knows the dangers of the job he might be about to take on. Last year Benazir told a reporter that she hoped her three children would choose a different career. ‘My children have told me they are very worried about my safety,’ she said. ‘I understand those fears. But they are Bhuttos and we have to face the future with courage, whatever it brings’.”

(Photo of Benazir Bhutto and baby Bilawal on the cover of an old magazine)