Bhutto’s son, 19, to assume opposition party leadership

The graduate student is unknown in Pakistan.

CHICAGO TRIBUNE

KARACHI, Pakistan — It had to be a Bhutto, everyone said, so Benazir Bhutto’s son changed his name Sunday to Bilawal Bhutto Zardari.

And the political heir, only 19, a student at Britain’s Oxford University who has not lived in his native land since he was 10, will now lead the largest opposition political party in Pakistan, not because he is politically astute, nor qualified, nor charismatic. He will lead simply because of his name and because his slain mother wanted him to. And the Bhutto dynasty — ironic in a party that bills itself as the country’s biggest voice for populism and democracy — will continue.

“You take Bhutto away, the Pakistan People’s Party is not there,” said Rafiq Safi, who helped found the party.

Bilawal Bhutto Zardari will run the party in a ceremonial role until he graduates college. His father, Asif Zardari, will run the party until his son is ready.

It’s a dangerous decision. It fails to establish some kind of democracy inside the hierarchical party that could have brought up new blood from different regions and created new potential leaders, critics say. It continues the party contradiction that will have a hard time lasting much longer, of a few running a party in feudal-like fashion while promising to work for the poor.

The decision also could end up fracturing the party, as many party workers dislike Zardari because of past corruption charges and because he isn’t a Bhutto.

Bilawal Bhutto is an unknown, almost a stranger to his country after spending years in exile with his family. He sounded upset and spoke only English when asked questions at the news conference at the family’s home in Noudero. But he is a Bhutto.

“He’s a kid,” said Farid Ahmed, 30, a trucker and lifelong member of the Bhutto party.

After a meeting Sunday, the party, still grieving over Thursday’s loss of the former two-time prime minister and chairwoman for life, also announced that it would contest parliamentary elections set for Jan. 8.

If the elections go ahead as scheduled, Bhutto’s party likely would sweep most seats on sympathy alone. Makhdoom Amin Fahim, the party’s vice-chairman, would be the candidate for prime minister, according to Bhutto’s last wishes.

On Sunday, the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz party, the second major opposition party, indicated it also would contest elections despite its pledge after Bhutto’s killing to boycott them. This party, led by Nawaz Sharif, could do well in the elections, riding on an anti-establishment wave.

“The People’s Party has now decided to go into elections,” said Raja Ashfaq Sarwar, the Nawaz party’s general secretary in Punjab province. “So whatever our gesture was, our move was, to be partners with the People’s Party during their time of sorrow, we’re reconsidering.”

The U.S. also has put pressure on Pakistan’s government to hold elections on time.

But the ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Q party of President Pervez Musharraf, whom many blame for being responsible for Bhutto’s death or at least negligent, probably would suffer unprecedented losses.

The government, stacked with Musharraf loyalists, indicated Sunday that elections would be postponed by up to eight weeks, despite earlier saying the wishes of Bhutto’s party on the elections would be respected.

In the rioting that followed Bhutto’s death, election commission offices and polling places were attacked, and ballot boxes were stolen. Many Pakistanis seem hardly in the mood to vote and participate in a governmental exercise. They still seem more interested in revenge. And campaigning seems tricky in the kind of environment where a suicide blast seems to go off near a candidate every week.