Politics is not for me: Zulfikar Ali Bhutto Junior

The grandson and namesake of the founder of Pakistan Peoples Party, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, has said he would not want to join politics as is expected of him.

“I respect what my father [Mir Murtaza Bhutto] did,” Zuflikar Ali said in an interview to The New York Times. “He dedicated his entire life to a cause, he made himself physically vulnerable for a cause, I respect that – but, honestly, it’s not for me.”

Although his immediate family has never pushed him to enter politics, Zulfikar Ali said, many in Pakistan consider him to be the successor to the family’s political dynasty.

However, it is not only politics towards which the junior Bhutto feels reluctance. He would also not like to return to Pakistan, the country where his grandfather’s party has been in power on and off since the 1960s.

The reason behind staying away from his home country partly lies behind drag dance, in which the performer dresses as the opposite gender, he said.

Zulfikar Ali believes he would not be able to openly practice his art in his home country, given the circumstances, which is why he is not interested in moving back.

The junior Bhutto moved to the United States in 2014 to pursue his Masters of Fine Arts at San Francisco Art Institute.

Also called Bhutto Junior, the 27-year-old was six years old when his father Mir Murtaza was killed outside his residence in 70 Clifton, Karachi on September 20, 1996.