The Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) turned 56 on November 30, 2023. Along the way, the party has lost many iconic figures, including founder and slain prime minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, his daughter and the first elected woman prime minister of the Muslim world Benazir Bhutto. A third-generation Bhutto, the young Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari, now leads the party.
Bilawal may be young, but he is quickly learning the art of politics and how to lead a major political party. He became the party chairman when he was just 19 years old, following his mother’s assassination. He was still studying at Oxford at the time. But after completing his education, he returned to his homeland and has spent time not only learning the ropes of politics but also the local landscape.
Bilawal Bhutto’s brief stint as foreign minister of the country in testing times displayed his personality traits and ability to adeptly represent the country globally. As foreign minister, he inherited a diplomatic bag full of challenges, many of which began well before he was born, including strained ties with the US and neighbouring India. To make matters more challenging, he assumed charge as foreign minister immediately after former prime minister Imran Khan had claimed his ouster resulted from a US-sponsored plot to punish him for pursuing an independent foreign policy. The Pakistan military and the foreign office rejected such claims, while Washington termed the accusations baseless.
Imran Khan’s accusations may have been absurd, but his objectives were clear: scoring political points at the cost of the country's foreign policy. By then, the Biden administration had already overlooked Pakistan and Imran’s unsubstantiated accusations, further fanning the fire.
Bilawal has been quick to adopt technology. In 2017, he became the first-ever Pakistani politician to use hologram technology for public rallies
But after assuming charge, Bilawal vowed to reset ties with the US. He travelled to New York on an invitation extended by the US Secretary of State Antony Blinken to attend a ministerial meeting on the “Global Food Security Call to Action”. The meeting helped the two sides underline ‘the need to further reinforce cooperation through dialogue and decisions at a higher level.’
Later in his tenure, in May 2023, Bilawal travelled to India. It was the first visit to India by a senior Pakistani official in over 12 years. Though he was cautious about the implications of his trip, with the PTI accusing him of compromising on the Kashmir cause, the visit was seen as a positive development after Bilawal Bhutto asserted that New Delhi should create a conducive environment for talks by restoring the pre-August 5, 2019, status for Indian occupied Kashmir.
More than half of Pakistan’s population is aged 23 years or below. Still quite young, he has been active on social media, amassing a following of 5.1 million on 'X' (previously Twitter) and is sixth on the list of most-followed political figures of Pakistan. Realising the gravity of social media in these changing times, Bilawal has directed the party to devise an innovative ways to utilise it. He has instructed the party's social media team to establish a PPP Digital Platform. Using the platform, the party has frequently organised social media events, including X-Spaces, setting trends and providing live coverage of speeches of PPP's leadership on social media platforms, including on X, Facebook and other mediums.
Of the 15 parties that had at least one seat in the last parliament, Bilawal ensured PPP was among the top five parties that had an active presence on major social media networks, including Facebook, X, Instagram, and YouTube, simultaneously.
Bilawal has been quick to adopt technology. In 2017, he became the first-ever Pakistani politician to use hologram technology for public rallies.
With less than two months to go for the country's much-awaited and long-overdue general elections, political parties have upped the ante.
The charisma which enamoured so many in the Bhutto family is amply reflected in Bilawal's personality as well. He is lucky to have the patronage of a man who is known for doing the impossible in politics
Bilawal has been spearheading PPP’s election campaign across Pakistan. He has dared to launch his campaign from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, despite knowing full well that the province is currently facing complex security issues and is a region where the PPP was heavily targeted in the run-up to the 2013 elections. He has ventured into the province even as several senior political leaders, including the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam Fazl (JUI-F) Maulana Fazalur Rehman, has urged the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) to postpone elections in the province due to the security threats.
The PPP chairman staged a series of conventions and rallies across Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, underscoring the significance of holding elections without delay. He asserted that he would rather be elected by the electorate than be ‘selected’. He urged the deposed prime minister and Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) supremo Nawaz Sharif to contest elections and to give up “the politics of selection”.
Finding how comfortable the PML-N was with PTI’s alleged ouster from the political race, Bilawal demanded a level playing field for all the political parties while exemplifying that "there was never a level playing field for the PPP.”
Earlier in October, the PPP warned the ECP that the result of general elections sans the PTI would not be acceptable to anyone.
The charisma which enamoured so many in the Bhutto family is amply reflected in Bilawal's personality as well. He is lucky to have the patronage of a man who is known for doing the impossible in politics.
However, political acumen, charisma and glorification of the past can not bring back the heydays of the PPP. A revival of the party, especially in Punjab, mandates a complete overhaul of the entire political edifice of the party and devising a youth-centered strategy. With Bilawal Bhutto as the party's chairman, this could be attained in the near future.
It is thus apt that Bilawal has chosen to contest the upcoming general elections from Lahore.