Bilawal Bhutto Zardari - Pakistan’s latest clown prince
Times Online: Sitting in his mother’s favourite small London hotel, more like a nightclub than a political stage, just 12 days after her assassination, he was asked whether he feared for his life. He replied: “I fear for my privacy more.”
There was gentle laughter, but muted by the preposterous contradiction: that Mr Bhutto Zardari, 19, is now the head of the most powerful party in a country gripped by political crisis, which has the world’s anxious attention, but he does not want anyone to photograph him except for 20 minutes, later this week, in Christ Church, his Oxford college.
Defending his new role against those who say that dynasty is incompatible with democracy, Mr Bhutto Zardari said: “It was recognised that at this moment of crisis, the party needed a close association with my mother through the bloodline.” He added that “politics is in my blood”, but admitted that he did not have experience, including that of living in Pakistan. Since he was 10, he was brought up in London and Dubai. “It was not my choice to live outside Pakistan when my mother was sent into exile,” he said.