Pakistan: President Asif Ali Zardari's daughter Aseefa to take electoral plunge for PPP

The youngest child of former prime minister Benazir Bhutto and president Asif Ali Zardari of Pakistan, Aseefa Bhutto has entered the turbulent political landscape of her nation by submitting a candidacy for a by-election to fill her father’s National Assembly seat in Sindh Province.

The 31-year-old Aseefa has been involved in politics for a while, but her father Zardari — who is also the co-chairperson of the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) — kept her out of legislative politics until the right moment.

Aseefa will take on the role of First Lady, which is customarily assumed by the president’s spouse, after her father is sworn in as Pakistan’s 14th president.

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In the byelection for the NA-207 seat in the Shaheed Benzirabad district of Sindh province, Aseefa filed her candidacy papers on Sunday.

Asif Ali Zardari, her father and Pakistan president, was elected to the position but left it empty when he was elected.

Aseefa looks a lot like her mother Benazir Bhutto, who died in 2007 in Rawalpindi due to a bombing and suicide assault. During that time, Aseefa was a teenager and experienced greater emotional suffering than her two older siblings, Bakhtawar and Bilawal.

The PPP’s chairman is former foreign minister Bilawal.

It might have been the cause of her father’s influence over her, as he made her the First Lady upon becoming president.

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Aseefa is regarded as her mother’s natural heir, having taken over the party when her father Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto was hanged in 1979 on allegations of his involvement in a murder case, even though her 35-year-old brother Bilawal had already assumed lead roles.

On April 21, there will be by-elections, and Aseefa is almost certain to win. She would advance both family politics and her party by entering the parliament.