If the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) is banking on the Bhutto name, the PML (N) is set to initiate former prime minister Nawaz Sharif’s nephew Hamza Shahbaz, while the ruling PML (Q) is introducing its Punjab president Parvez Elahi’s son Moonis in the elections.

Bilawal will reach the minimum age to contest in six years, but both 33-year-old Hamza and Mansoor, 31, are standing for elections for the first time.

Bilawal was a three-month-old infant when Bhutto first became the Prime Minister in 1988, and has now become the party’s youngest chairman. But his mother had apparently begun his political “grooming”.

Bilawal did his initial schooling from Islamabad’s elite Froebel’s school, but then went to Dubai to finish his schooling when his mother went into self-exile. Now he is studying at Oxford, which was the alma mater of both mother Benazir and grandfather Zulfiqar. Many here see uncanny parallels in this, pointing out that Benazir was in Harvard when Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto was sent to the gallows.

Political observers say Bilawal’s future depends on his relationship with father Asif Ali Zardari and the PPP’s prime ministerial candidate, Makhdoom Amin Fahim. “One can just hope that he doesn’t become a reflection of his father,” a senior journalist from Dawn remarked.

Hamza Shahbaz is Nawaz Sharif’s brother Shahbaz’s eldest son and is contesting for the first time as the PML (N)’s candidate in Old Lahore or the Walled City for the National Assembly. With Nawaz’s son Hassan running the family business, it is Hamza who has taken on the political mantle in the Sharif family.

Sitting in his tastefully done house in a posh Lahore locality, he told The Indian Express: “My education from Lahore and London puts me in good stead to lead the party and inspire the younger generation... My law degree has taught me that rule of law is critical for the development of any society.”

Hamza did his schooling from Lahore and then completed graduation at Government College in Lahore, before going on to do LLB (Honours) from the London School of Economics.

Although he hasn’t held any political post in the PML (N) so far, according to party leader Mohammad Mehdi, Hamza keeps in regular touch with party workers in Lahore.

Mehdi, also the foreign affairs coordinator of the PML (N), adds: “When Nawaz Sharif was exiled in 2000, Hamza stayed back and for the last eight years he has kept in touch with party activists.”

He talks about Hamza organising a dinner for workers on a Thursday of every month to keep himself abreast of developments and never missing a wedding or funeral of party workers.

However, Mehdi admits, right now both Nawaz and Shahbaz Sharif are active influences in his political career. It may take a while before Hamza can carve out his own niche, he adds.

Moonis Elahi, the son of the PML (Q)’s Punjab president and former Punjab chief minister Parvez Elahi, is his party’s “urban face” to capture Lahore from the Sharifs.

He is contesting his first elections this time in Punjab for the provincial seats, and from two constituencies of Gujrat and Lahore.

Born in April 1976, Moonis is a graduate from the Wharton School of Business. He returned to Pakistan after finishing B-school to do business, but was soon sucked into politics after his uncle Chaudhary Shujaat Hussain (founder-member and president of the PML-Q and former prime minister) apparently asked him to lead young partymen. Both Shujaat Hussain and brother Parvez Elahi hold considerable clout in the Punjab province, which has 150 seats in the assembly of 342. They hope Moonis will appeal to the younger generation across all provinces, getting them their votes.

However, Moonis has already had his share of controversies, including reported public brawls and alleged links with moneybags.