KARACHI: Pakistan Peoples Party chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari on Saturday launched his political career by addressing a mammoth crowd at Bagh-i-Jinnah, but before that he took an unhurried and smiling selfie as the rally participants roared out their approval.

Born in 1988 in Karachi, Mr Bhutto-Zardari studied in the UAE and the UK.

He became co-chairman of the PPP after the assassination of his mother in December 2007. He assumed the post along with his father, Asif Ali Zardari, who emerged as a powerful politician when he became president of the country in 2008.

Later, Mr Bhutto-Zardari became chairman of the party.

Amid growing threats posed primarily by the Taliban, the youthful PPP leader initially focused on culture and education by organising the Sindh festival and visiting educational institutes.

The Saturday rally, however, is being seen as a first serious political move by the PPP made in response to a series of rallies and sit-ins by the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf in Punjab, which in the past used to be a PPP stronghold.

Named after his great grandfather Bilawal Zardari, said to be a Sufi man whose shrine is famous in Nawabshah as ‘Ballu Ja Quba’, Mr Bhutto-Zardari seems to have inherited his mother’s and maternal grandfather Zulfikar Ali Bhutto’s affinity for mysticism and frequently visits Sufi shrines.

Curiously, the other day in Hyderabad, the PPP leader also visited the mausoleum of Sindh’s freedom fighter, Hoshu Sheedi, whose famous call for resistance against British colonisers — Merveysun, merveysun, per Sindh na desun — often finds mention in the fiery speeches of the young PPP leader.

Mr Bhutto-Zardari finds time to maintain an active and aggressive presence on the social media and loses no opportunity to fire broadsides at political opponents, even the Muttahida Qaumi Movement chief — whom he calls `Uncle Altaf’ — whenever the latter talks about more administrative units in Sindh.

The PPP leader also maintains an unambiguous stance on militancy.

His style of speech — redolent of the impassioned manner in which his mother used to speak, according to Sindh PPP information secretary Waqar Mehdi — seems to have improved remarkably in recent years. His speeches, leavened with a touch of Urdu poetry, have caused many to wonder who’s tutoring him in the art of public speech.

“Bilawal has worked hard on his Urdu skills and his speeches are extempore,” says Mr Mehdi.

His claim is echoed by PPP senator Saeed Ghani who insists Mr Bhutto-Zardari has no speech writer.

Published in Dawn, October 19th, 2014