Bilawal Bhutto Zardari was just 19 years old when the assassination of his mother catapulted him from carefree student to leader of one of Pakistan‘s biggest political parties.
Three days after a Taliban bomb killed Benazir Bhutto in 2007, the Oxford history student took over as chairman of the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP).
His precocious rise to political prominence has continued with his appointment as the youngest foreign minister in Pakistan’s history, taking one of the most high-profile postings in the new Shehbaz Sharif government at just 33.
The role places Mr Bhutto Zardari on the world stage and at the head of attempts to soothe relations with the US after former prime minister Imran Khan accused Washington of plotting to have him removed.
But analysts also see the appointment as a step towards achieving the hopes of the storied Bhutto family and their party of returning to power in Pakistan.
As the son of Benazir Bhutto, who was prime minister twice, and Asif Ali Zardari, who was president, Bilawal is the epitome of Pakistan’s dynastic political elite. His grandfather, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, founded the PPP and was president and prime minister before he was hanged by a military dictator in 1979.
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