Islamabad:

Asifa Bhutto, the youngest daughter of Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari and the late Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, filed in a National Assembly seat in Sindh province that was vacated by her father candidacy in the by-election polls, thereby taking a plunge into the country’s volatile politics.

Asifa, 31, has been active in politics for some time but her father Zardari, co-chairman of the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP), has kept her away from parliamentary politics until the time was right.

After her father takes office as Pakistan’s 14th president, Asifa is set to become first lady, a position traditionally held by the president’s spouse.

Asifa filed her nomination papers in the by-election to NA-207 constituency in Shaheed Bunjirabad district of Sindh on Sunday.

Her father, President Asif Ali Zardari, won the seat but withdrew from it after becoming president.

Asifa bears a resemblance to her mother, who was killed in a 2007 bombing and suicide attack in Rawalpindi. Asifa, then a teenager, suffered more emotionally than her two older brothers, Bakhtawar and Bilawal.

Bilawal is a former foreign minister and chairman of the BJP.

This may be why she grew closer to her father, who appointed her first lady after becoming president.

Although her 35-year-old brother Bilawal has taken over the party, Asifa is considered her mother’s natural heir. In 1979, her father Zulfikar Ali Bhutto was hanged for his alleged involvement in the murders, and her mother took over the party.

A by-election will be held on April 21, with Asifa almost certain to win. By becoming a member of parliament, she will strengthen her party and family politics.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)