PPP jiyala from Birmingham mistaken for Bakhtawar's fiance-to-be

BIRMINGHAM: A Birmingham-based Pakistani man, wrongly labelled as the fiancé of Bakhtawar Bhutto-Zardari, the eldest daughter of former prime minister Benazir Bhutto and ex-president Asif Ali Zardari, has turned out to be a lifelong Pakistan Peoples Party jiyala.

The man who has been named in the fake social media posts as Mahmood Choudhry, son of US-based businessman Younas Choudhry, is in fact Sohaib Chaudhary from Birmingham.

Speaking exclusively to Geo News, Sohaib Chaudhary said that the picture circulating on social media was taken in 2014.

“Six years ago I attended a party meeting held in central London along with many other PPP workers. Bakhtawar Bhutto-Zardari was also present in that meeting and that's when this picture was taken.”

“She’s not only a party leader but also a celebrity and everyone wanted to have a photo taken with her,” said Sohaib.

Sohaib’s maternal uncle, Chaudhary Shafqat is currently the president of PPP South London in the UK. Sohaib, of his own self, says he is a committed worker of PPP, and has been affiliated with the party since his student days.

“It is very unfortunate that some people, just to malign the party, are spreading false rumours about the party leadership by using this picture of me with Bakhtawar Bhutto. This is absolutely wrong. She’s my leader and my sister and a very respectable and honourable person,” said Sohaib.

“Her mother Shaheed Benazir Bhutto and father Asif Ali Zardari are our leaders. The people who are spreading these baseless allegations using this picture should be ashamed of themselves,” Sohaib added.

Interestingly, Sohaib Chaudhry, whose family is originally from Kharian and Jhelum in Pakistan, is a cousin of National Disaster Management Authority Chairman Lt General Mohammad Afzal. The British Pakistani is married to General Afzal’s niece.

Thirty-year-old Sohaib lives in Birmingham with his wife, to whom he’s been married for eight years, and they have two children.

Ever since word spread of Bakhtawar Bhutto-Zardari's planned engagement with Mahmood Chaudhry, all of a sudden a flurry of rumours about her would-be life partner started to circulate on social media.

To put an end to these rumours and speculation regarding her groom to be’s identity, PPP decided to take to Twitter and clear the air regarding all the misinformation being shared on social and on some electronic media too.

Sohaib thanked all the party workers and friends who stood beside him in these tough times. He said that he had personally contacted the administrators of those social media accounts but "unfortunately no one was ready to listen to the truth".

Asked whether he plans on attending the wedding, he said all his prayers are with Bakhtawar and he will definitely travel to Pakistan to participate in the wedding, if invited.

“PPP workers all over the world are very excited and want to celebrate Bakhtawar’s wedding the same way [Asif Ali Zardari and Benazir Bhutto's] wedding celebrations took place all those years ago in Lyari,” said.

Bakhtawar’s engagement to Mahmood is due to take place at Bilawal House in Karachi on November 27 and all attendees have been requested to email a scanned copy of their negative COVID-19 PCR test result 24 hours prior to the event.