Youth appeal and ambitious plans to combat climate change form the core of Bilawal Bhutto Zardari’s effort to become prime minister of Pakistan, which, if successful, would make him its youngest premier since his mother Benazir was in office.
As general elections near on Feb.8, the 35-year-old, a former foreign minister and scion of a family that gave the nation two prime ministers, called for new ideas and leadership to calm political and economic instability.
About two-thirds of Pakistan’s population of 241 million is younger than 30, while its prime ministers since 2000 have been older than 61, on average.
The Oxford-educated Bilawal is less than half the age of three-time premier Nawaz Sharif, 74, whom analysts consider the frontrunner in next month’s election, and former cricket super star Imran Khan, 71, who won the last election in 2018.
The eventual winner faces the task of reviving a struggling $350 billion economy grappling with historic inflation and an unstable rupee currency that limit growth and job opportunities for the young.
The South Asian nation received a $3 billion loan programme from the IMF in July that averted a sovereign debt default in a standby arrangement set to expire this spring.
Bilawal plans to tap into widespread anger, saying he has a concrete plan to provide free electricity and boost social safety programmes, despite fiscal constraints.
“What we propose is to completely restructure Pakistan’s development model, putting the threat of climate change front and centre,” he said, in a reflection of his party’s election manifesto.
Making a promise rare in Pakistan, it aims to ensure that funds exceeding $10 billion pledged last year go to fight climate change, after super floods in 2022 that displaced more than 7 million people.
A member of Pakistan’s most powerful political dynasty, Bilawal spoke in an interview during a gruelling four-week campaign that took him to more than 33 towns, while other parties began canvassing just last week.
He is the son of former prime minister Benazir Bhutto, assassinated while on the campaign trial in 2007, and the grandson of former PM Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto.
If Bilawal won the election, subject to the vagaries of government formation, calculations show he could be just 25 days short of his mother’s age on entering office in 1988, at the earliest.
“I haven’t actually counted, but … I think she was the youngest,” he responded, when asked how he rated his chances.
ALTERNATIVE CHOICE
However, his Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) has lost space to the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) of Sharif and the Pakistan Tehrik-e-Insaf (PTI) of Khan, who have been locked in a bruising political battle for more than a decade.
Positioning himself as an alternate to them in 2024, he recently called on supporters of Khan to vote for him while their leader is in jail.
In the 2013 elections, the PPP came second after Sharif’s party, garnering 42 of the 342 seats up for grabs. In 2018, with 54 seats, it was runner-up to the parties of both Sharif and Khan.
Bilawal ruled out joining hands with either contender, however, saying he preferred to form a government with independent candidates.
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