Bhutto family ends Zardari-Bilawal rift rumours

DUBAI: The Bhutto family on Saturday put to rest all rumours of rift between Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) top leadership and father-son duo, Asif Ali Zardari and Bilawal Bhutto, ARY News reported.

The rumours of rift were doing rounds after former President Asif Ali Zardari said that his son and PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari was “not fully trained” in politics and would “take time” getting up to speed.

Taking to X (formerly Twitter), Bakhtawar Bhutto-Zardari, the daughter of Asif Ali Zardari, asked people to not pay heed to the headlines, stressing that the family stands united.

Bakhtawar also shared an image with her family — including Zardari, Bilawal, and Aunt Faryal Talpur.

Don’t believe the headlines – we’re only & always about family first.

Photo credit @aseefabz ♥️ pic.twitter.com/btP69SNCkO

— Bakhtawar B-Zardari (@BakhtawarBZ) November 25, 2023

“Don’t believe the headlines – we’re only & always about family first,” she captioned the image. The family members can be seen in a happy mood.

Although her sister Aseefa Bhutto wasn’t in the image, she was the one who had captured it.

Bakhtwar shared the photo around half an hour after Bilawal Bhutto had posted a similar image on his Instagram handle, with caption ‘Family’.

After the rift rumours started doing round, the PPP said that the reports of rifts between the top PPP leadership were “baseless” and that there were only differences on some issues.

PPP Central Secretary Information Faisal Karim Kundi said the party chairman Bilawal Bhutto’s visit to Dubai was pre-planned.

“Rumours regarding differences between Chairman PPP & President Asif Ali Zardari are baseless,” he added.

Zardari’s interview

During an interview, Asif Zardari was asked about Bilawal, who in recent days has repeatedly called on the nation to let older politicians “stay at home” and to give someone new a chance in the general elections.

“And then Bilawal is also not fully trained. [We] are training him,” he said.

“He’ll take time,” the PPP leader said. At the same time, Zardari said Bilawal was more talented, educated and better spoken than him but “experience is experience”.

Asif Zardari asserted that the government of former prime minister Imran Khan wanted “minus Zardari People Party” and send me out of the country.

Zardari contended that initiating a no-confidence motion against Imran Khan was the correct decision otherwise he would have stayed in power until 2028 through an RO election.