Do we like them?

Do we like Bilawal Bhutto Zardari?

Our score: 7 out of 10. Decent words on women's rights, nothing harmful found, but little on LGBTQ+ issues and a thin record I could read in full.

Bilawal was born in Karachi in 1988, the only son of Benazir Bhutto and Asif Ali Zardari. He left Pakistan in 1999 when his mother went into self-exile, and the family split their time between London and Dubai. He went on to study history and politics at Oxford and joined the Oxford Union.

The formative moment came in December 2007, when his mother was assassinated and he was named PPP chairman at 19. His father became co-chairman to run things until he finished his studies. He made his political debut in 2012 and has led the party into every election since, so he is a dynasty kid who inherited the job rather than someone who climbed up to it.

On the harm check, what I could read is on the right side. At a 2023 UN women's conference in New York he said Islam “treats women as human beings in their own right, not as chattel”. Searches also turned up speeches on minority rights, but I couldn't open those pages to check them. I found no statement from him on LGBTQ+ people either way, and no sign of him pushing conspiracy theories or campaigning against any group.

The sharpest talk on the record is about India. At a 2025 rally in Sukkur he warned India against walking away from the Indus Waters Treaty, saying “The Indus is ours, and it shall remain ours.” Indian politicians hit back hard. It reads as hard-edged geopolitical rhetoric rather than hate aimed at a group, but reasonable people will weigh it differently depending on where they sit on the India-Pakistan fight.

The 2026 gossip is mostly noise. ARY reported that online claims of a European bride were dismissed by Karachi's mayor as false and baseless. I found no allegations of wrongdoing against him personally and no court outcomes where he was the defendant, but I couldn't open the court and fact-check pages, so treat that as no evidence found rather than a clean bill.

So, lean yes. Nothing harmful from him turned up, he has gone on the record for women's rights, and the scandal list is basically rumours about his love life. The gaps are real: nothing on LGBTQ+ rights, and a lot of his parliamentary record I couldn't verify. If you want a firm yes, watch what he says on trans and queer rights in a country where that is hard to say.