Bilawal Bhutto Zardari (Urdu: بلاول بھٹو زرداری, Sindhi: بلاول ڀٽو زرداری)

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born 21 September 1988) is the chairman of the Pakistan Peoples Party, and the eldest child of the late Pakistani politician and former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto and her husband Asif Ali Zardari, the current President of Pakistan. Chairman Bhutto Zardari is also the grandson of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, the first popularly elected Prime Minister of Pakistan and father of Benazir Bhutto, who held the distinction of being the first female elected head of government of any Islamic country.As chairman of the Pakistan People's Party, the first-year Oxford University

Described by friends as studious and devoted to his mother, the teenager is a novice to public life.

He has yet to debate in the Oxford Union and would have to squeeze in the January elections before he returns to the UK for his second term at university.

Bilawal - the name means "one without equal" - was born in September 1988, three months before his mother Benazir was elected prime minister for the first time.

She went into self-imposed exile in April 1999, taking Bilawal and his two younger sisters with her, and divided their time between London and Dubai. For most of this time, his father Asif Ali Zardari was in jail in Pakistan on blackmail and corruption charges.

As a teenager, Bilawal said: "I have gone through lots of things and he wasn't there. At the time when we needed him, he was taken away. We were denied a normal life."

Bilawal won a place at Christ Church College in Oxford, also attended by his grandfather, Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto, who founded the PPP. His mother was at Lady Margaret Hall and became president of the Oxford Union.

Victoria Schofield, a close friend of Miss Bhutto who has known Bilawal since he was a baby, said she was convinced he would rise to the challenge presented him.

"He was devoted to his mother, there is no doubt about that. He is not a flash spoilt brat by any means."

"He will be so emotionally connected to what his mother has suggested that there will be no question of him doing anything different."

Despite the expectation upon his shoulders, he is determined to carry on with his life at Oxford.

Despite the expectation upon his shoulders, he is determined to carry on with his life at Oxford.

"It was his mother's greatest joy that he got to Oxford," said Ms Schofield, adding that Miss Bhutto would have expected him to return to his studies. However, that university life could well change, with increased security in the wake of his mother's death. Ms Schofield believes that Bilawal will also have to learn quickly about his homeland,.

"He has barely been to Pakistan, he would have been 11 when he left," she said.

"He does speak Urdu and Arabic but English is his first language, that was what was spoken in the home.

"He has also got to work on a new relationship with his father - he didn't really knew his father as a boy."

In 2004, a prophetic Bilawal looked both to the past and the future when he said: "My grandfather was a very courageous man and I consider myself very lucky because I have three powerful role models that will obviously influence my career choices when I am older."

Four years later, he finds himself the teenage heir to that political dynasty facing a crisis unmatched by even its own standards.

Education

Initially studying at Karachi Grammar School during his mother’s second term in office as Prime Minister, Bilawal attended Froebels International School in Islamabad Pakistan. He later attended Rashid School For Boys in Dubai, where he was Vice President of the student council. He is also a black belt in Taekwondo. He is currently studying history at Christ Church, one of the colleges of University of Oxford. His mother was a graduate of the same university. When he found out about his mother's assassination he was at the family home in Dubai for the winter break from university

Chairman of Pakistan Peoples Party

Bilawal was appointed chairman of the Pakistan Peoples Party on 30 December 2007. His father, Asif Ali Zardari, had been named the new chairman in Benazir Bhutto's will, but he asked for his son to be appointed instead. Asif will be co-chairman. In the same press conference Asif also announced that Bilawal would henceforth use the name "Bilawal Bhutto Zardari", whereas he was previously known as "Bilawal Zardari".


Future
Bilawal intends to complete his studies at Oxford before returning to lead the party full-time. It had been estimated that Bilawal's security at Oxford will cost at least one million pounds each year. He returned to Pakistan in September 2008 to witness his father sworn in as President of Pakistan.