Aseefa Bhutto given the status of Pakistan’s First Lady
ISLAMABAD, (NNI): Another distinction for Aseefa Bhutto Zardari, daughter of President Asif Ali Zardari, as besides becoming a member of the National Assembly (MNA) for the first time, she now also has the honour of becoming the First Lady of Pakistan.
Aseefa, who took oath as a member of the National Assembly (MNA) on Monday after emerging victorious unopposed in a by-election in Nawabshah, was given the protocol of the country’s First Lady on arrival at the Parliament House on Tuesday.
Aseefa Bhutto had Monday officially commenced her parliamentary duties after she was sworn in as a member of the National Assembly, marking her formal entry into the political arena.
NA Speaker Sardar Ayaz Sadiq administered the oath to Aseefa Bhutto in the National Assembly session.
President Asif Ali Zardari also reached the Parliament House to witness the oath-taking ceremony of his daughter Aseefa.
Speaker Sardar Ayaz Sadiq welcomed the President upon his arrival in the Parliament House.
PPP chairman and brother of
Aseefa, Bilawal Bhutto Zardari was also present in the assembly.
After the oath, Aseefa signed the role sign amid slogans from the party members present in the assembly and in the visitors’ gallery. Later, PPP’s women MNAs also took selfies with Aseefa.
Soon after the oath, she left the session along with her brother Bilawal.
The status of the First Lady goes to the wife of the President of the country in general. But Zardari became a widower after his wife and former prime minister Benazir Bhutto was assassinated in 2007. Zardari did not remarry and the position of the first lady also remained vacant during his first tenure as the country's president from 2008 to 2013.
Aseefa during Zardari's first term was a teenager and currently, she is 31 years old.
According to the Oxford Learner’s Dictionary, the first lady is the wife of the president or the leader of the state but Merriam-Webster opens up the canvass a bit more by adding that the first lady can also be someone who is not the wife or female partner of a state’s chief executive but who fulfils the public duties of a first lady.
First ladies have traditionally hosted dinners, functioned as political workers, launched domestic initiatives, addressed conferences and summits, and enlisted help from Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs) for various causes.
In Pakistan, apart from just being by the president’s side, the first ladies have been known to launch their own initiatives on social and health-related issues. However, some first ladies, including Aseefa’s grandmother Nusrat Bhutto, military dictator Ziaul Haq’s wife Shafiq Zia and Iskandar Mirza’s spouse Nahid Mirza, stayed active in politics as well.
There are many instances from foreign countries when presidents, who were widowers, had asked their daughters, sisters and even nieces to become their first lady.
Former United States president Andrew Jackson, who was a widower, had asked his niece Emily Donelson to serve as the country's first lady. Moreover, two other US presidents Chester Arthur and Grover Cleveland asked their sisters to serve as first lady.