LARKANA: Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, Chairman of the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) and former Foreign Minister, has said that Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) leader Nawaz Sharif is seeking to become Prime Minister for the fourth time through a backdoor.
“He’s certainly giving the impression that he is relying on something other than the people of Pakistan to become prime minister for the fourth time,” Bilawal said in an interview with Reuters when asked if he believed the establishment was behind Nawaz.
Bilawal, a member of Pakistan’s most powerful political dynasty, talked in the interview after a grueling four-week campaign that took him to over 33 towns, while other parties only started canvassing last week.
Youth appeal and ambitious plans to address climate change are central to Bilawal’s campaign to become Pakistan’s prime minister, which, if successful, would make him the country’s youngest premier since his mother Benazir was in office.
As federal elections approach on February 8, the 35-year-old, a former foreign minister and a member of a dynasty that has produced two prime ministers, has called for fresh ideas and leadership to alleviate political and economic uncertainty.
“The implications of the decisions taken today are going to be faced by the youth of Pakistan,” Bilawal stated in a statement.
“I think it would be better if they were allowed to make those decisions.”
Approximately two-thirds of Pakistan’s 241 million people is under the age of 30, yet the country’s prime ministers have averaged over 61 since 2000.
The Oxford-educated Bilawal is less than half the age of three-time premier Nawaz Sharif, 74, who many consider the favorite in next month’s election, and former cricket legend Imran Khan, 71, who won the previous election in 2018.
The eventual winner must revive a faltering $350-billion economy plagued by unprecedented inflation and an unstable rupee currency that stifles growth and job chances for young people.
The South Asian country obtained a $3 billion loan package from the IMF in July, avoiding a sovereign debt default in a standby agreement that was supposed to expire this spring.
Despite fiscal limits, the PPP head intends to capitalize on widespread discontent by announcing a specific plan to give free power and expand social safety programs.
“What we propose is to completely restructure Pakistan’s development model, putting the threat of climate change front and centre,” he said, echoing his party’s election promise.
Making an uncommon vow in Pakistan, it seeks to ensure that monies beyond the $10 billion given last year are used to combat climate change, following severe floods in 2022 that uprooted more than 7 million people.
Calculations suggest that if Bilawal wins the election, subject to the vagaries of government formation, he will be only 25 days younger than his mother when he takes office in 1988.
“I haven’t actually counted, but… I think she was the youngest,” he said when questioned about his prospects.
However, his Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) has lost ground to Sharif’s Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) and Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), which have been embroiled in a grueling political fight for more than ten years.
Positioning himself as an alternate in 2024, he recently urged Khan fans to vote for him while their leader is in jail.
In the 2013 elections, the PPP finished second to Sharif’s party, winning 42 of the 342 seats up for grabs. With 54 seats in 2018, it came in second place to both Sharif and Khan’s parties.
Bilawal, on the other hand, stated that he would like to create a government with independent candidates rather than collaborate with either candidate.
“You know, lots of independent politicians, probably the highest (number) in our history, are taking part in the coming elections,” he went on to say.
Questions of transparency will hover over the 2024 elections, just as with past ones, he continued, but he and his party intended to win against expectations.
Most of the independents belong to Khan’s party, which lost the right this month to fight on a single platform, making the approaching election the most open in recent decades.
However, one expert believed that becoming prime minister would be a difficult task for Bilawal, as his party had struggled to gain political strength.
“But I don’t see him as prime minister material just yet,” Kugelman said. “The election will likely lead to a coalition government, and Bilawal could be in the mix for a cabinet-level position, but the top slot is likely too much of a reach.”
Bilawal was thrust into the political fray as a teenager in 2007, following his mother’s assassination. He later inherited her party but stayed out of politics till he finished school.
His father, Asif Ali Zardari, was elected president following Benazir’s death.
The PPP leader earned a parliamentary seat in his first election in 2018, followed by a 16-month term as foreign minister until August 2023.
