Bilawal, who stays with Bhutto in Dubai, got his computerised national identity card and vote certificate in February this year.
ISLAMABAD: Former Pakistan Premier Benazir Bhutto, who is trying to work out a rapprochement with President Pervez Musharraf in order to return home from her self-exile to contest elections, is grooming her son Bilawal to carry forward her family's political legacy.
Bhutto, who inherited her father Zulfikar Ali Bhutto's legacy, dominated Pakistan's political scene after he was executed by former military ruler Zia-ul Haq in 1979.
But, after a decade in self-exile and still not certain about her return, Bhutto enrolled Bilawal, her eldest son as a Pakistani citizen and voter as he turned 18 years.
Bilawal, who stays with Bhutto in Dubai, got his computerised national identity card and vote certificate in February this year.
Bilawal's vote was registered in Bhutto's hometown of Larkana instead of Nawabshah of his father Asif Ali Zardari, who is currently in New York after his release from the prison in 2005.
President of Bhutto's Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) Larkana wing, Ayaz Soomro, said Bilawal's vote was registered in union council of Naudero under Bhutto's directives. The union council is part of National Assembly constituency NA-166, from where both Bhutto and her father Zulfikar Ali Bhutto were elected.
Soomro said Bilawal's ID card was prepared through the Pakistani embassy in Dubai, 'Daily Times' reported.
Party leaders said Bilawal would not enter politics until he completed his education but added that Bhutto has already started his political training.
"Bilawal only speaks English fluently but he can speak or understand Urdu and Sindhi," Soomro said.
Besides Bilawal, Bhutto and Zardari have another son Bakhtwar and daughter Aseefa.
But it appears that it would not be a cakewalk for Bilawal to inherit Bhutto's legacy and may have to face a bitter succession battle with Fatima Bhutto, his cousin and daughter of Bhutto's younger brother Murtaza Bhutto, who was murdered in Karachi under controversial circumstances during her tenure as Prime Minister.
For long Bhutoo had to put up with allegations of her family's involvement in Murtaza's murder which, she staunchly denied.
But 25-year-old Fatima Bhutto, currently living with her foster mother Ghinwa Bhutto, one of the wives of Murtaza, has completed post-graduation and shown gritty talent for politics as she has already emerged as one the country's popular English columnists.
She is also qualified to contest the elections for the national and provincial assemblies, besides being an active member of Ghinwa Bhutto's faction of PPP-Shaheed.
A staunch opponent of Bhutto, Ghinwa left enough hint that Fatima would join politics sooner than later. "People made (ZA) Bhutto the leader. They will decide Fatima Bhutto's political future," she said.
Anwar Bhutto, a confidant of Benazir Bhutto, said she would be happy to see Fatima in politics as she "wants both scions of Murtaza Bhutto to enter politics and she loves them very much."
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