Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari: Benazir Bhutto's son is Pakistan's new foreign minister

By Team Newsable | First Published Apr 27, 2022, 9:07 PM IST

President Arif Alvi administered the oath of office and secrecy to him at a brief ceremony at the Aiwan-i-Sadr (President's House), in the presence of Prime Minister Shehbaz, and other authorities, as well as leaders of the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP).

Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari, the scion of a powerful political family, was sworn in as Pakistan's new foreign minister on Wednesday in the coalition government led by Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif. President Arif Alvi administered the oath of office and secrecy to him at a brief ceremony at the Aiwan-i-Sadr (President's House), in the presence of Prime Minister Shehbaz, and other authorities, as well as leaders of the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP).

Bilawal took the oath almost a week after meeting Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) supremo Nawaz Sharif in London last week, when they reviewed Pakistan's "overall political situation" and agreed to collaborate on issues of politics and national interest.

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He is the Pakistan Peoples' Party (PPP) president and the son of three-time former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, who was assassinated in a bomb and rifle assassination at a campaign gathering in Rawalpindi in 2007. Asif Ali Zardari, Bilawal's father, is a former Pakistani President. Bilawal, an Oxford-educated, forward-thinking, and liberal politician, has taken over at a critical time in the country's history, facing various problems such as repairing frayed ties with the United States and resuming the peace process with neighbouring India.

Among the major obstacles, Bilawal must repair frayed relations with the United States in the aftermath of former Prime Minister Imran Khan's conspiracy charges, as well as find a means to resume the stalled peace process with neighbouring India.

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For the first time, Bilawal has been granted a prominent position in the cabinet and the critical role of the country's foreign minister. In 2018, he was elected to the National Assembly for the first time.

Bilawal's PPP is the second-largest party in Prime Minister Sharif's current coalition government, which was formed on April 11. Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif is the PML-president, N's while Bhutto-Zardari, 33, has been charged with mending strained ties with the United States and other Western countries.

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