Sunday, December 30, 2007

Bhutto's son Bilawal crowned head of political party and dynasty

From Times online, December 30, 2007

Newly-appointed chairperson of the PPP Bilawal Bhutto Zardari speaks during a press conference as his father Asif Ali Zardari looks on

(Aamir Qureshi/AFP/Getty)

Bilawal Bhutto, right, at the Pakistan People Party press conference where his appointment as chairman of the party, with his father, left, was officially announced (Aamir Qureshi/AFP/Getty)

He walked into the room as Bilawal Zardari, a fresh-faced 19-year-old history student who recently finished his first term at Oxford University.

He walked out as Bilawal "Bhutto" Zardari, the newly crowned head of the political party - and the dynasty - that his mother, Benazir Bhutto, led until her assassination on Thursday.

After an emotional four-hour meeting in the Bhuttos' ancestral home, the Pakistan People's Party (PPP) announced that Bilawal, Ms Bhutto's eldest child and only son, would succeed her as official chairman of the party. But he would return to Britain to continue his studies at Christ Church, Oxford, and his father and Ms Bhutto's widower, Asif Ali Zardari, would run the party as co-chairman until he graduated in three years' time, the PPP said.

The PPP also declared that it would participate in parliamentary elections' scheduled for January 8, despite the chaos the has engulfed Pakistan since Ms Bhutto was killed in a suicide and gun attack at an election rally near the capital, Islamabad.

Continued . . .

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