NAWABSHAH: The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) has notified Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) candidate Aseefa Bhutto-Zardari’s victory on NA-207 Shaheed Benazirabad (former Nawabshah) 1 seat which was vacated by her father, Asif Ali Zardari, who became the president of Pakistan on March 9.
Aseefa entered parliamentary politics after becoming a Member of the National Assembly (MNA) for the first time.
According to the top electoral body, 11 candidates, including Aseefa, had filed their nomination papers to contest the by-poll on the aforementioned seat vacated by Zardari who became president of Pakistan after being jointly nominated by the ruling coalition.
Three candidates withdrew their nomination papers, whereas, seven nominations were rejected, as per the ECP.
Earlier, Aseefa has been declared the country’s First Lady after Zardari sworn in as country's 14th head of state a day after he swept the presidential election after obtaining 411 electoral votes on March 9.
The decision was taken by the PPP co-chairman after consulting the party leaders on recognising the scion of Bhutto family as the first lady.
A first lady is the president's wife, however, in this case, President Zardari is a widower after his wife, former prime minister Benazir Bhutto, was martyred in 2007.
Since then, the president did not remarry and the position of the first lady also remained vacant during his first tenure as the country's president — from 2008 to 2013.
However, back then time it was different, as Aseefa was a teenager during her father's first tenure as the head of state, and currently, she is 31 years old.
Aseefa had actively been involved in the party's electoral campaign in the run-up to the February 8 polls and was seen leading various rallies in a bid to seek support for her brother Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari — the party's then-candidate for the prime minister's post.
Aseefa made her political debut at a PPP rally in Multan on November 30, 2020.