INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
before the country heads to the polls.In his first election campaign, Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, the scion of the storied Bhutto family who now
enjoyed on her return from exile in 2007, before she was assassinated on the campaign trail.Party leaders insist the 29-year-old Bhutto,
Oxford-educated like his mother and grandfather - also a former prime minister - brings a fresh new appeal to the party as it attempts to
Sherry Rehman told Reuters.Whether his father, former President Asif Ali Zardari, will be an asset or an obstacle in that effort remains a
(PTI), which has seemingly eclipsed the PPP in the past five years, and the former president would be a key figure in any such
analyst Aamer Ahmed Khan said.Both PPP and PTI officials were cagey when asked about the possibility of an alliance, but did not rule it
the offences for which he was held and has always maintained his innocence.He was released in 2004 after an eight-year stretch behind bars,
the military rule of General Pervez Musharraf.Bhutto was assassinated on the campaign trail three months after her return in a suicide
father Zulfiqar, who founded the PPP, was hanged by General Zia-ul-Haq in 1979 after being deposed in a military coup, while her brother
Murtaza was gunned down in the southern city of Karachi in 1996 while she was in office
say their campaign, fronted by Bilawal Bhutto, will focus in battling extremism and intolerance in a country scarred by more than a decade
PPP retains significant support in the traditional Bhutto-Zardari family stronghold of Sindh province, it appears to have lost ground
A Gallup nationwide poll in March put the party on 17 percent, with PTI on 24 percent and PML-N on 36 percent.That suggests the best chance
for the opposition parties would indeed be some sort of alliance.Some in Islamabad believe Zardari has been quietly building ties with the
military to that end - a suspicion enhanced in March when the PPP declined an opportunity to lead the Senate and instead helped elect an
said Khan, the political analyst
