About two-thirds of Pakistan's population of 241 million is younger than 30, while its prime ministers since 2000 have been older than 61, on average.

The Oxford-educated Bhutto Zardari is less than half the age of three-time premier Nawaz Sharif, 74, whom analysts consider the frontrunner in next month's election, and former cricket super star Imran Khan, 71, who won the last election in 2018.

The eventual winner faces the task of reviving a struggling $350-billion economy grappling with historic inflation and an unstable rupee currency that limit growth and job opportunities for the young.

The South Asian nation received a $3-billion loan programme from the IMF in July that averted a sovereign debt default, but the nine-month standby arrangement is set to expire this spring.

Bhutto Zardari plans to tap into widespread anger, saying he has a concrete plan to provide free electricity and boost social safety programmes, despite fiscal constraints.

"What we propose is to completely restructure Pakistan's development model," Bhutto Zardari said in Larkana, his hometown in the southern province of Sind, a family bastion, in a reflection of his party's election manifesto.

Making a promise rare in Pakistan, it aims to ensure that funds exceeding $10 billion pledged during fundraising last year go to fight climate change, following super floods in 2022 that displaced more than 7 million people.

A member of Pakistan's most powerful political dynasty , Bhutto Zardari spoke in an interview during a gruelling four-week campaign that took him to more than 33 towns, while other parties began canvassing just last week.

He is the son of former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, assassinated while on the campaign trial in 2007, and the grandson of former Prime Minister Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto, hanged by a military dictator in 1979.

Both are venerated by Pakistanis, with their graves at a mausoleum just 25 km (16 miles) from Larkana drawing supporters and devotees throughout the year.

If Bhutto Zardari won the election, subject to the vagaries of government formation, calculations show he could be just 25 days short of his mother's age on entering office in 1988, at the earliest.

However, his Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) has lost space to the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) of Sharif and the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) of Khan, who have been locked in a bruising political battle for more than a decade.

Positioning himself as an alternate to them in 2024, he recently called on supporters of Khan to vote for him while their leader is in jail.

In the 2013 elections, the PPP came second after Sharif's party, garnering 42 of the 342 seats up for grabs. In 2018 , with 54 seats, it was runner-up to the parties of both Sharif and Khan.

Bhutto Zardari ruled out joining hands with either contender, however, saying he preferred to form a government with independent candidates.

Most of the independents belong to Khan's party, which lost the right this month to contest on a single platform, making the approaching election the most open in recent times.

Analysts believe the powerful military has thrown its backing to Sharif following a standoff with Khan, giving the former an edge in a country where army generals exert undue influence over setting up governments.

The military denies the accusations, and says it remains apolitical.

Pushed into the political fray as a teenager in 2007, after his mother's assassination, Bhutto Zardari later inherited her party, but steered clear of politics until he finished his education.

His father, Asif Ali Zardari, was elected president after Benazir's death.

Bhutto Zardari won a parliamentary seat in his first contest in 2018, which was followed by a 16-month stint as foreign minister, until August 2023.