Benazir's son regrets he couldn't play cricket in Pakistan

ISLAMABAD: Former Pakistan premier Benazir Bhutto's son Bilawal, whom she was grooming to step into her shoes, is a black belt in Taekwondo but regrets that he could not play cricket.

Bilawal, who uses his mother's surname, also likes swimming, horse riding, squash and target shooting.

The 19-year-old, currently studying in Oxford, told a local daily in a rare interview three years ago that he will always regret the fact that he could not play cricket because of the "circumstances in which my family had been put".

Bilawal, who was three months old when his mother first became prime minister, spent his childhood in Dubai and London when his mother went into self-imposed exile.

Bhutto always fiercely guarded her children's privacy and kept them away from the prying eyes of the media. Bilawal, the eldest of Bhutto's children, who chose to study at his mother and grandfather's alma mater after finishing his O levels in Dubai, was inconsolable at Bhutto's funeral on Friday.

Bhutto's son, who turned 19 in September, said he knew about the family's legacy and that he had "powerful role models who will obviously influence my career choices when I am older".

On his joining politics, he had said, "We will see, I don't know. I would like to help the people of Pakistan, so I will decide when I finish my studies."
      
"I can either enter politics, or I can enter another career that would benefit the people," Bilawal said when he was 15.

Like his mother, whom he doted on, Bilawal spoke about Pakistan's problems which he said could be solved if there is democracy in the country.

"I think there wouldn't be such a problem if a dictator doesn't come and take over after every couple of years. That contributes to backwardness and poverty. Democracy is the only way out," he had said.

"The founder of Pakistan believed in democracy. He did not believe in dictatorship, and Pakistan was not founded for that. So there shouldn't be a dictator," he added.

"About the justice system, I don't know how well it is working over here, but my father has been in prison for eight years and has not been charged with anything, nor has anything been proved," he told the Dawn in 2004.

Bilawal also passionately spoke about "cooked up cases" against his father Asif Ali Zardari, who was charged in several corruption cases.

"He (Zaradari) is the only politician in Pakistan who has been kept behind bars for eight years. It is not only a crime against him, it is a crime against me and my family, who have been robbed of our father's company and guidance when we needed him," Bilawal said in the interview given when he came to Pakistan to meet his father after a gap of four years.
        
Asked whether he would like his father to be freed through a deal with the government or to be exonerated by the courts, Bilawal's response was, "He should come out with honour. If there a deal going on then, why a deal after all the fake cases?"
        
Biliawal also spoke about his two younger sisters. "My middle sister (Bakhtawar) doesn't talk about it (Zardari being in jail) a lot but my younger sister (Asifa) asks me and I tell her that we have to be strong and one day he will be free and will be with us."
        
On his mother, he said, "She tries to find time for us whenever she can. I think she is doing a good job as a mother, even though (she is) very busy."