Bilawal too young to contest elections: Khursheed Shah

Bilawal Bhutto Zardari is a couple of months short of becoming eligible for contesting elections.

SUKKUR: To the disappointment of many jiyalas, Federal Minister for Religious Affairs Khursheed Ahmed Shah said on Wednesday that Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) chairperson Bilawal Bhutto Zardari was a couple of months short of becoming eligible for contesting elections. However, the PPP leader added that once Bilawal becomes eligible, he will contest elections from his mother’s constituency.

Gilgit Baltistan chief minister Mehdi Shah said that the present PPP-led government will be the second government in the country’s history, after that of Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto, to complete its tenure. “Dictatorships have caused tremendous damage to the country and its institutions, but the PPP has strengthened these institutions through its policy of reconciliation.”

The two PPP leaders were talking to media personnel outside Sukkur airport, before embarking for Garhi Khuda Bukhsh.  When asked to comment on the government’s failure to arrest the killers of Benazir Bhutto, Mehdi Shah said that Interior Minister Rehman Malik would be the better person to talk on the matter.

The federal minister admitted that as elections come nearer, political parties will make decisions keeping in mind their own interests. The elections will be held on time, and our party’s central executive committee will discuss the issue in its upcoming meeting, he said.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 27^th, 2012.

Correction: An earlier version of the article incorrectly mentioned "her mother's constituency" instead of "his mother's constituency" in the first paragraph. The error has been rectified.