Bilawal may figure on Time's top 100 influential people list

The Pakistan People's Party's 19-year-old chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari may figure on Time magazine's 2008 list of the top 100 influential people who shape the world.
Former premier Benazir Bhutto's son Bilawal who was made chairman of the PPP after his mother's assassination in December, has bagged 7,875 votes and is occupying slot number 20, much ahead of US President George W Bush and even presidential hopefuls Barrack Obama, Hillary Clinton and John McCain.
Like every year, Time magazine is inviting readers to vote for leaders, artists, entrepreneurs and thinkers who shape the world and deserve a spot on its annual list. There are currently 207 finalists and the list will be published in the magazine's next issue.
So far, on the scale of 1 (least influential) to 100 (the most influential), comedian Stephen Colbert is leading, followed by Korean pop sensation Rain, comedian John Stewart, video-gamer Shigeru Miyamoto and singer Madonna.
The list of finalists also features Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf, Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani, army chief Ashfaq Parvez Kayani and militant's commander Baitullah Mehsud.
The list describes Bilawal as "a 19-year-old Oxford student, chairman of the Pakistan People's Party and son of slain leader Benazir Bhutto". It lists his positives as "announcing his intention to finish school at Christ Church before entering politics" and the fact that he "has practically admitted his appointment in the wake of his mother's assassination was largely symbolic".
With all other Pakistanis trailing in the list, Bilawal may well be the only one from his country and perhaps the youngest in the list to be counted among the world's most influential people.
It is unlikely that Kayani, who took "the reins of military power from a gelded President Pervez Musharraf last November, and began moving Pakistan's most stable national institution out of the blast zone of politics", will make it to the top 100.
India's Congress party chief Sonia Gandhi in the 56th slot and ahead of US Presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton (104) and even US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice (125). The Dalai Lama is currently occupying the 11th slot on the list of finalists.