Aseefa third member of her family to get elected unopposed

LAHORE: Aseefa Bhutto Zardari has become the third member of her family after her maternal grandfather Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto and aunt Faryal Talpur who were also elected unopposed as the Member of the National Assembly.

Before Aseefa, in 1977, her maternal grandfather and PPP founder Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto was elected unopposed from Larkana, though controversies surrounded this victory. In the year 2008, Faryal Talpur, the aunt of Aseefa Bhutto also got elected unopposed from NA-207, Larkana. Besides, there is also a unique coincidence that her aunt Faryal Talpur won from the constituency whose number was also NA-207, though it was in 2008 and district was Larkana. It was the seat where former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto was to contest but the polls were postponed after her tragic assassination on December 27, 2007.

Aseefa has been elected from NA-207, district Nawabshah, the seat vacated by her father Asif Ali Zardari, who is the President of the country now. Other than these two close relatives of Aseefa, all others had to contest the polls to become MNA or MPA. Her maternal grandmother Begum Nusrat Bhutto, mother Benazir Bhutto, father Asif Ali Zardari, brother Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, grandfather Hakim Ali Zardari and one aunt Azra Fazal are amongst those who had to contest the polls to become the member of the parliament.

In the 1970 general elections, PPP founder and father of Benazir Bhutto got elected from Lahore and Larkana. In 1988, Aseefa’s mother and maternal grandmother, Benazir Bhutto and Nusrat Bhutto got elected while defeating the rival candidates. Benazir Bhutto got elected from Lahore, Karachi and Larkana whereas Begum Nusrat Bhutto got elected from Larkana and later from Chitral as well in 1990.

Begum Nusrat Bhutto defeated Hameeda Begum from NA-164, Larkana in the 1988 general elections. Benazir Bhutto contested against IJI-backed independent candidate Mian Umer Hayat from Lahore, IJI ticket holder Jamshed Khan and 8 other candidates from Lyari, Karachi and also contested from NA-166, Larkana.

Asif Ali Zardari got elected from Lyari, Karachi in 1990 and defeated Yusuf Baloch of IJI as well other candidates. Hakim Ali Zardari won in 1993 from Nawabshah and defeated Shabbir Shah of PMLN from NA-161. Asif Ali Zardari also won from one seat and lost the other from Nawabshah at the hands of Ghulam Mustafa Jatoi in 1993.

Dr Azra Fazal, aunt of Aseefa and sister of Asif Zardari got elected from Nawabshah in 2002 general elections while contesting on PPP ticket from NA-213 and defeated PMLQ candidate Syed Zahid Hussein Shah and other competitors.

Bilawal Bhutto Zardari got elected as MNA from NA-200, Larkana in 2018 and defeated MMA’s Rashid Soomro. Mir Murtaza Bhutto, the maternal uncle of Aseefa Bhutto also got elected as MPA in 1993 from PS-31, Larkana while defeating PPP’s Munawar Abbasi.