Remains a foreign minister if Nawaz Sharif becomes Pakistan’s prime minister again: Bilawal Bhutto

Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, the chairman of the Pakistan Peoples Party and a former foreign minister, said on Monday that he would not take over as the nation’s top diplomat under Nawaz Sharif in the event that the former prime minister wins back control on Thursday.

The nation’s youngest foreign minister in 2022 was the 35-year-old son of the late prime minister Benazir Bhutto. Shehbaz Sharif, Nawaz Sharif’s younger brother, led the coalition government that was formed after Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf (PTI) party was ousted in a no-confidence vote in Parliament earlier that month.

In an interview with Independent Urdu, Bilawal said that if the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) party won the February 8 elections, he would find it difficult to work with them.

“If Nawaz regains power, I will not accept the position of foreign minister; I cannot engage in the same kind of politics. He was cited as stating, “I can stand with that if he breaks away from that and creates an environment that benefits democracy in the country.”

With the exception of the PPP, both main political parties, according to Bilawal, practice divisive and hateful politics. The PPP should be able to form the government on its own, he added, adding that it is like having to pick between the devil and the deep blue sea.

In a different interview, Bilawal said that his party is running for office on the basis of its agenda rather than looking to form an electoral coalition with any other party.

The PPP chairman voiced expectations for Pakistan to go in “a positive direction” and for political stability in the nation in an interview with Voice of America Urdu.

A few days ago, Bilawal made fun of Nawaz Sharif by claiming that it would be “an insult to the people of Pakistan” to “give an impression” of the outcomes of the next general elections being predetermined. The three-time former prime minister was criticized by him for “not campaigning enough.”

In September 2008 until September 2013, Asif Ali Zardari, the father of Bilawal, was the eleventh president of Pakistan. The Dawn newspaper reported that Bilawal made these remarks in a podcast interview.

The only person from Pakistan to have held the position of prime minister three times in the history of the coup-prone nation is Sharif. Nevertheless, in 1993, 1999, and 2017, he was removed from office at the conclusion of each term.

Elections for four provincial legislatures and 336 seats in the National Assembly, the lower house of Parliament, are scheduled for February 8. The National Assembly and the four provincial legislatures in Punjab, Sindh, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, and Balochistan are up for election, with over 18,000 candidates.