Source: BBC News

Players on the world political stage are rarely 19-year-olds keen to continue their studies uninterrupted. What are Bilawal Bhutto’s chances of doing just that?

Until last month, Bilawal was just another fresher finding his way around Christ Church College in Oxford, forging new friendships and sampling the night life.

Yet following his mother Benazir’s assassination, he has stepped into her shoes as co-chairman of the Pakistan People’s Party. On Tuesday, in the full glare of a packed press conference, he appealed to be left alone while at Oxford.

And he says his biggest fear - far greater than the risk of assassination attempts - is the loss of his privacy. Just how realistic is that?

Few have been a position quite like his. Chelsea Clinton managed to integrate into student life during her two years at Oxford’s University College. Other than putting security measures in place, the university took the arrival of the former First Daughter in its stride.

Bristol University took a more heavy-handed approach ahead of the arrival of Tony Blair’s eldest, Euan. Freshers were warned they faced expulsion if found to have leaked stories about their fellow student. The tactics paid off, and little was written about his university days.

Royal students, too, have been largely left alone. In his own words, Prince William could “pop to the supermarket and buy some asparagus” without attracting too much attention during his four years at St Andrew’s University in Scotland.

Photographers with long lens largely kept away, and his fellow students left him alone as he cycled to lectures and drank lager in the pub.

But that privacy came after an appeal to the media by royal aides, and a warning from the university’s principal that anyone leaking stories would have to find somewhere else to study.

The prince also made some calculated moves to mark himself out as a royal. He skipped Freshers’ Week, the notoriously raucous start of the first year, to tour local community projects and a hospital with his father.

As second-in-line to the throne, his considerable security needs were met by Fife police, who described the job as having gone smoothly.

Police protection

Psychologist Dr Paul Sander, who specialises in student learning, says Oxford and Cambridge are well-versed in handling the famous, the wealthy and the royal.

“I don’t think it’s anything to do with the mechanisms put in place by the universities, it’s more an attitude thing. I don’t think Mr Bhutto would faze somewhere like Oxford.”

But he says that Bilawal, as a first-year student, is already taking a lot on board, from learning to work on his own to adjusting to life away from his home in Dubai. And many undergraduates find their studies suffer when bereaved or facing other personal difficulties.

And his security? Thames Valley Police says he has been given police protection and since his mother’s assassination, they have been working with the national security services.

US security consultant John Giduck, who has advised the FBI and the US military on protection, believes protecting him will be an expensive task.

“The threat level is going to be inordinately high - you are dealing with a young man with an enormous target painted on him. It would take dozens of people and hard assets to keep this man safe,” he says.

His advice is for Bilawal to have between two and five bodyguards at all times, with another team checking places ahead of his arrival. The predictability of a university timetable may make him vulnerable, Mr Giduck says, and extra security restricts daily life.

Bilawal says politics are in his blood, yet he wants to stay out of public life for the time being. Whether the media, and Pakistanis, will let him wait in the wings is another matter.

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Tags: Assassination, Benazir Bhutto, Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, Chairman, oxford, Politics, PPP