Zardari keen to induct daughter Asifa in politics

Former Pakistan Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto’s youngest daughter Asifa Bhutto Zardari is just a couple of years away from being an active politician.

Twenty-three-year-old Asifa, a student in Dubai, will attain the age of 25 years, mandatory to contest polls in Pakistan, before the 2018 general elections. Asifa turned 23 on Tuesday.

Asifa is also being groomed as potential co-leader of the Pakistan People’s Party along with her brother Bilawal Bhutto (27) and father Asif Ali Zardari. There are strong signals from the PPP that Benazir’s three children will contest the next national elections in 2018.

Born in 1993, Asifa is the Unicef ambassador in Pakistan for the treatment of polio. Famously, she was the first Pakistani baby to be vaccinated against polio after her mother launched a major immunisation drive in 1994.

A PPP leader said Asifa was destined to contest elections in 2018 and if the party won, she could be assigned an important role. “Bilawal is the party’s candidate for the PM’s slot, but Asifa could be given some key role... like leading the party when Bilawal Bhutto is busy as the PM or becoming the parliamentary leader etc.,” he added.

Asifa’s older sister Bakhtawar Bhutto (26), a few months earlier, was given the responsibility to head the PPP’s social media team, a move being considered as a stepping stone towards the top post in the party.

Bakhtawar’s appointment marked the third generation of the Bhutto women to join the party’s leadership. Her grandmother Nusrat Bhutto led the PPP after the execution of the founder Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, and her mother Benazir Bhutto was leader from November 1982 to December 2007.

Mr Zardari’s close aides said he was eager to see Asifa as the leader of the PPP in the future and has not been shy to express this desire. A few months earlier, the former President said Asifa would take part in active politics in next few years. PPP leaders suggest Mr Zardari wanted all his children to take part in politics and co-lead the party while he remained the mentor.

When Mr Zardari was the President, between 2008 and 2013, Asifa Bhutto was regularly invited to join functions at the President’s House or at the Prime Minister’s house.

A senior PPP leader said Mr Zardari never planned to replace Bilawal, an alumnus of Oxford University, with Asifa Bhutto, but wanted her to co-lead the party with her brother. Bakhtawar, who graduated from the University of Edinburgh, is also being groomed for an identical role.