Aseefa Bhutto, the youngest daughter of slain Benazir Bhutto, and the current Pakistan president Asif Ali Zardari has announced that she will run for the National Assembly seat in Sindh province left vacant by her father.
Aseefa, 31, has been involved in politics for some time but has been kept out of legislative politics by her father Zardari, who is also the co-chairperson of the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP), until an appropriate moment.
Following her father's inauguration as Pakistan's 14th president, Aseefa is set to become the First Lady, a role typically held by the president's spouse.
On Sunday, Aseefa filed her nomination papers for the by-election to the NA-207 constituency of Shaheed Benzirabad district in Sindh province.
Her father and president, Asif Ali Zardari, won the seat but resigned after becoming president.
She bears resemblance to her slain mother, who was killed in a bombing and suicide attack in Rawalpindi in 2007.
As a teenager, she suffered more emotionally than her two older siblings, Bakhtawar and Bilawal. Bilawal, a former foreign minister, now chairs the PPP.
It might be why she became closer to her father, who appointed her First Lady after becoming president.
Although her 35-year-old brother Bilawal had already taken over the party, Aseefa is regarded as a logical heir to her mother, who took over the party after her father, Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto, who was executed in 1979 for his involvement in a murder case by General Zia led regime.
The by-elections will be contested on April 21, and Aseefa is very certain to win. By entering parliament, she is supposed to enhance her party and her family politics.
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