Former President of Pakistan Asif Ali Zardari and Bilawal Bhutto Zardari
Former Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari said on Thursday that his son and chairman of the Pakistan People's Party, Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, is not fully trained in politics and needs some more training. He said that "Bilawal is more educated than him, but experience is experience."
Mr Zardari made this statement during an interview with Pakistani journalist Hamid Mir.
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In his recent speeches, Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, the son of Benazir Bhutto and Asif Ali Zardari, has highlighted the importance of younger politicians and urged their older counterparts to "stay at home."
According to Dawn, speaking in the National Assembly in August, Bilawal, the youngest foreign minister in the country's history, had also implored his father and PML-N supremo Nawaz Sharif to take decisions that would make politics easier for the younger generation, which he said was losing hope in the country's future.
During the interview, Asif Ali Zardari talked about his motivations for being involved in politics.
"Politics is my compulsion, not a necessity. Because Bibi sahiba (Benazir Bhutto) was martyred, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto sahib was martyred, and thousands of our workers were martyred. So there is a debt on us, and I am in politics for that. And then Bilawal is also not fully trained. [We] are training him," he said.
Expressing surprise, Hamid Mir questioned, "Bilawal is not trained?" and in response, Mr Zardari nodded.
"He'll take time," the PPP leader said. Zardari acknowledges Bilawal's superior talent, education, and communication skills, but he says "experience is experience."