By: Shajil Kumar
Aseefa Bhutto, the youngest daughter of Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari and slain premier Benazir Bhutto, has filed her candidacy for the by-poll at a National Assembly seat in Sindh Province vacated by her father.
Aseefa, 31, has been active in politics for some time but was kept away from parliamentary politics by her father Zardari, also the co-chairperson of the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP).
However, following her father’s inauguration as the 14th president of Pakistan, Aseefa is poised to become the First Lady, a position traditionally held by spouses.
Aseefa submitted nomination papers on Sunday for the NA-207 constituency of Shaheed Benzirabad district in the Sindh province. Her father had won the seat but vacated it after becoming president.
Aseefa has a resemblance to her mother, who was killed during a terror attack in 2007 in Rawalpindi.
Aseefa was then a teenager and suffered more emotionally than her two elder siblings, Bakhtawar and Bilawal.
Bilawal, a former foreign minister, is the chairperson of the PPP.
Although her 35-year-old brother Bilawal had already taken over the party, Aseefa is considered a natural heir to her mother.
Benazir Bhutto took over the Pakistan Peoples Party leadership after her father Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto was hanged in 1979 for alleged involvement in a murder case.
The election will be held on April 21, and Aseefa is the frontrunner. (PTI)
