PPP announces Bilawal as PM candidate, Zardari as presidential nominee

Islamabad: The Pakistan Peoples Party on Thursday announced that its chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari would be its prime ministerial candidate and his father Asif Ali Zardari the presidential nominee in the general election scheduled to be held on February 8.

The announcement comes as the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) party had already announced that its chief and former three-time premier Nawaz Sharif would be the nominee for the post of prime minister.

Though Pakistan is a multi-party parliamentary democracy and the election of prime minister and president is indirect based on the number of seats won by a party, the nomination of prime minister or president helps the voters to decide with the knowledge who would be on the top of decision making hierarchy after elections.

Addressing the media here, PPP information secretary Faisal Karim Kundi said that Bilawal will be the candidate for the prime minister and “our wish will be that we replay 2008 and make Asif Zardari the president”.

Zardari, 68, who had become the President of Pakistan after elections held in 2008, served in the post till 2013.

Bilawal, 35, served as the Minister of Foreign Affairs from April 2022 to August 2023.

Kundi also said that the elections “should not be delayed” beyond February 8 and that the PPP is “fully ready” for the elections.