A blood-stained family legacy

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At just 19 years old, a blood-stained family legacy could hang heavy on the shoulders of assassinated Pakistan opposition leader Benazir Bhutto’s only son Bilawal.

He becomes the third Bhutto to lead the Islamic nation’s largest political party after his mother and his grandfather Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto, who founded the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) and was executed under martial law in 1979.

His father Asif Ali Zardari meanwhile was appointed co-chairman of the party.

Bilawal has already shown signs of following in his mother’s footsteps, enrolling earlier this year at Oxford University, where Benazir Bhutto was head of the prestigious Oxford Union debating society.

Bilawal — the name means “one without equal” — was born in September 1988, a month before his mother won general elections under military dictator Ziaul Haq to become the first female prime minister in the Muslim world.

“I went back to sleep and woke up to the sound of a congratulatory gunshot being fired outside the hospital, the beating of drums and cries of ‘Jiye (Long Live) Bhutto,” the slain opposition leader wrote in her autobiography.

“The most celebrated and politically controversial baby in the history of Pakistan had been born.”

He and his two sisters went into exile with their mother in 1999, dividing their time between London and Dubai, where Bilawal attended school.

Reports in local newspapers said he was keen on outdoor sports including target-shooting and horse riding.

At Benazir’s funeral on Friday, he was pictured looking composed despite his grief, but analysts say he is perhaps too young to be taking over the job.

“Bilawal is just 19 years old, he needs to be groomed,” political analyst and retired general Talat Masood said before the teenager’s appointment as chair of the PPP was announced on Sunday.

“They should let him complete his education,” he said.

ASIF ALI ZARDARI: Nicknamed “Mr. Ten Percent” by Pakistanis because of allegations about kickbacks from his wife’s time in power, Zardari, 51, has gone from playboy to villain and now to grieving political widower.

When he married into the Bhutto political dynasty in 1987, Zardari, then 31, was the little known scion of a landowning polo-playing family from southern Sindh province.

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