DESIGNATED PARTY LEADER Bilawal attending a Quran reading session at his family's home in Dubai on Wednesday. Some observers said his move into the political arena echoes that of his mother's: Ms Benazir Bhutto was also a student at Oxford when her father was deposed and hanged. -- PHOTO: AFP

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'Bilawal was never a sporty guy. He was always into magazines, books and history. He was a very, very shy boy,' said Mr Jafri, an uncle who shared the family's eight-year exile in Dubai, according to Britain's Guardian newspaper.

In fact, the teenager is studying history at Christchurch, the same Oxford University college attended by his grandfather Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto, under the name Bilawal Lawalib - his first name spelt backwards.

His mother, slain opposition leader Benazir Bhutto, also graduated from Oxford. But rather than brandish the family name, Bilawal simply wanted to blend in with the student body.

'He never said who his family were,' Mr Luke Tryl, who was president of the Oxford Union last term, told the paper. 'I only found out some time after I met him.'

Last Sunday, all that changed for Bilawal.

Just three days after his mother was assassinated while campaigning for re-election in their homeland, her Pakistan People's Party (PPP) named her only son its chairman.

That makes him the third Bhutto to lead the Islamic nation's largest political party after his mother and his grandfather. His grandfather, who founded the PPP, was executed under martial law in 1979.

His father, Mr Asif Ali Zardari, was named co-chairman and will lead the party for now. But he said his son would from now on be known to the world as Bilawal Bhutto Zardari - with the emphasis on the middle name.

The flurry of publicity that followed immediately has forced Bilawal to accept the mantle of an international figure, however reluctantly.

In fact, the media has already tripped up in the rush to be the first to dig up as many juicy details about Bilawal as possible.

Two profiles on the popular Facebook Internet website that described him as eating junk food and watching Buffy The Vampire Slayer were widely reported as fact but turned out to be fiction.

What is known is that Bilawal, whose name means 'one without equal', was born in September 1988.

That was two months before his mother won the general election to become the first female prime minister in the Muslim world.

'I went back to sleep and woke up to the sound of a congratulatory gunshot being fired outside the hospital, the beating of drums and cries of 'Jiye (Long Live) Bhutto',' the slain opposition leader had written in her autobiography. 'The most celebrated and politically controversial baby in the history of Pakistan had been born.'

In 1999, Bilawal and his two sisters followed their mother into self-imposed exile in 1999, dividing their time between Dubai and London.

In Dubai he attended a prestigious school where he earned top GCSE grades. He was reported to be a keen swimmer, horseman and squash player.

Bilawal also holds a black belt in taekwondo and is reportedly an enthusiastic target shooter.

All the while he has maintained a low profile that has kept him out of Britain's notorious tabloids.

He has never even had a girlfriend. 'The mother wouldn't allow it,' said his uncle Jafri.

In an interview in 2004, Bilawal was asked by the Pakistani newspaper Dawn if he planned to go into politics, the BBC reported.

'We will see, I don't know. I would like to help the people of Pakistan, so I will decide when I finish my studies,' he said. ' I can either enter politics, or I can enter another career that would benefit the people.'

Now the recent tragic events in Pakistan appear to have given him little choice.

At his first press conference after being chosen to lead the PPP, he said: 'My mother always said democracy is the best revenge.'

But observers said he looked uncomfortable when party supporters broke into chants of 'Bilawal, step forward! We are with you!'

Mr Alan Duncan, the Tory shadow business secretary and a long-time friend of Ms Bhutto, told the Guardian: 'There are moving echoes of what happened to Benazir when she was at Oxford, when her father was deposed and hanged. She rose to events and I have no doubt that Bilawal will do so too.'

zach@sph.com.sg