All adjacent streets leading to Ghanta Ghar Chowk were choked with people rushing towards the jalsa venue. There was a sense of hustle, a sense of enthusiasm among old, forgotten jiyalas of Multan who had virtually retired from the politics. They were excited to behold the sight ‘Choti Bibi’ Aseefa Bhutto – the daughter of late Benazir Bhutto, and the youngest of the Bhutto clan.
And there she was – standing on a container that served as a makeshift stage for PDM, the opposition alliance’s rally – waving her hands, chanting party slogans, and making victory signs, just like her deceased mother. From the look of it, nobody could have guessed that it was her political debut from the opposition’s platform.
Political Debut
This was 27-year-old Aseefa Bhutto’s official launch, almost by chance. She was filling in for her brother, Bilawal Bhutto, who had gone into self-quarantine after testing positive for COVID-19 and could not lead his party in a pre-planned opposition rally. But, when she addressed the energetic crowd, she did not disappoint those watching.
“They think they can scare us with arrests? They are mistaken. If they arrest our brothers, remember, every woman in the Pakistan People’s Party is ready for battle,” Aseefa Bhutto said in her fiery first speech.
The uncanny resemblance of the mother-daughter duo
Those who have seen her firebrand mother in political rallies were awestruck with her uncanny resemblance wither Benazir Bhutto. Not only does she looks like Bibi, her conduct, her beautiful Urdu accent, and her passionate voice – all give the reflection of her mother.
“In my opinion, the content of her speech was not as important as her aura, which generates the same feel and energy as her mother,” said Nusrat Javed, a senior Pakistani journalist who has been covering Pakistan politics for decades.
People too were quick to notice how she was a reflection of her mother.
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Aseefa’s likeness with her mother also got Sherry Rehman emotional. She is a senior leader of the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP), and a close political companion of the late Benazir Bhutto.
Sherry pointed out how the members of the Bhutto family have always rendered sacrifices for the sack of democracy.
Circumstances have always catapulted key members of the Bhutto family into the churn of the political mainstream in Pakistan. Both Benazir and Bilawal found the life of politics choosing them, instead of the other way around.
Benazir was compelled to take reins of the party in the absence of her father late Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto who was jailed and later hanged to death. Bilawal was also prematurely launched into politics after the assassination of her mother. And now, Aseefa has stepped to fill his elder brother’s shoe who at the time, was struggling with the deadly virus.
PPP’s Future Leadership
It is an open secret that with all his foreign accent and Zulfiqar Bhutto-like aggression, Bilawal has failed to fill the gap created by her mother’s death. However, Aseefa has all those ingredients. Along with her physical appearance, she has also inherited qualities from both of her maternal grandparents. She triggers the accumulated memories of the Bhutto family in a very powerful way.
It will not be long before her presence at party rallies might become a necessity given the kind of forgotten energy that she generates.
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