Bilawal Bhutto, the teenaged son of slain former premier Benazir Bhutto, was today thrust into the spotlight to take on the troubled legacy of a family that has played a key role in Pakistani politics.
He will be the third leader of the 40-year-old Pakistan People's Party, one of Pakistan's most powerful political forces. Though he was named the chairman of the party, he will have to wait for another six years to contest an election.
He will follow in the footsteps of his grandfather Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, who founded the PPP in 1967 and served as prime minister for four years in the mid-1970s, and his mother Benazir, who took over at the age of 26 after her father was hanged by the military regime of General Zia-ul-Haq in 1979.
The suave and handsome Bilawal, who is studying at Oxford -- his mother and grandfather Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto's alma mater -- is taking an early plunge into politics, following his mother's assassination on December 27.
Bilawal reportedly fainted on hearing about his mother's death in Dubai and was inconsolable at his mother's funeral. He had joined his father and his sisters for an Eid break in Dubai and was to fly back to his college this week.
Bilawal is known as a fitness freak. He has a a black belt in Taekwondo but regrets that he could not play cricket. He also likes swimming, horse riding, squash and target shooting.
The 19-year-old told a local daily in a rare interview three years ago that he will always regret the fact that he could not play cricket because of the "circumstances in which my family had been put".
Bilawal, who was three months old when his mother first became prime minister, spent his childhood in Dubai and London when his mother went into self-imposed exile.
Bhutto always fiercely guarded her children's privacy and kept them away from the prying eyes of the media. Bilawal, the eldest of Bhutto's children, who chose to study at his mother and grandfather's alma mater after finishing his O levels in Dubai, was inconsolable at Bhutto's funeral on Friday.
Bhutto's son, who turned 19 in September, said he knew about the family's legacy and that he had "powerful role models who will obviously influence my career choices when I am older".
On his joining politics, he had said, "We will see, I don't know. I would like to help the people of Pakistan, so I will decide when I finish my studies."
"I can either enter politics, or I can enter another career that would benefit the people," Bilawal said when he was 15.
Like his mother, whom he doted on, Bilawal spoke about Pakistan's problems which he said could be solved only if there is democracy in the country.
"I think there wouldn't be such a problem if a dictator doesn't come and take over after every couple of years. That contributes to backwardness and poverty. Democracy is the only way out," he had said.
"The founder of Pakistan believed in democracy. He did not believe in dictatorship, and Pakistan was not founded for that. So there shouldn't be a dictator," he added.
"About the justice system, I don't know how well it is working over here, but my father has been in prison for eight years and has not been charged with anything, nor has anything been proved," he pointed out in the interview.
Bilawal also passionately spoke about "cooked up cases" against his father Asif Ali Zardari, who was charged in several corruption cases.
"He (Zaradari) is the only politician in Pakistan who has been kept behind bars for eight years. It is not only a crime against him, it is a crime against me and my family, who have been robbed of our father's company and guidance when we needed him," Bilawal said in the interview. The interview was taken when he was visiting Pakistan to meet his father after a gap of four years.
Asked whether he would like his father to be freed through a deal with the government or to be exonerated by the courts, Bilawal's response was: "He should come out with honour. If there is a deal going on, then why a deal after all the fake cases?"
Biliawal also spoke about his two younger sisters. "My middle sister (Bakhtawar) doesn't talk about it (Zardari being in jail) a lot but my younger sister (Asifa) asks me and I tell her that we have to be strong and one day he will be free and will be with us."
On his mother, he had said, "She tries to find time for us whenever she can. I think she is doing a good job as a mother, even though (she is) very busy."
