A Bangladeshi tabloid claims to have uncovered a bombshell of a story of a love affair between Pakistan People’s Party leader Bilawal Bhutto and Pakistan Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar which, if true, has all the markings of an epic Pakistani political scandal.

A report published Monday by the Blitz claimed that the 24-year-old Bhutto family scion and the son of Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari was in love with Khar, who is 11 years older and married to businessman Firoze Gulzar with whom she has two daughters.

The tabloid story, based on unnamed sources within the president’s family, claimed: “Bilawal Bhutto has made his mind to bid farewell to politics and leave the country either by end of 2012 or early next year, while Hina Rabbani Khar is also expected to resign from the ministry almost at the same time.” The report added that Zardari was “vehemently opposing” Bilawal’s affair “saying it would not only jeopardize Bilawal's political career but would also invite political doom for the ruling Pakistan People's Party.”

Zardari came to know of the romance when the duo was caught in a “compromising situation” inside the official residence of the president, where Bhutto also resides, the report said. The president reportedly got hold of mobile call records between his son and the foreign minister and “found evidences of relations between the two.”

“While the hidden cold war between the father and the son is getting complex every day, Hina Rabbani Khar on the other end is negotiating a settled divorce with her husband millionaire businessman Firoze Gulzar,” the tabloid said.

The report has also alleged that Zardari, “aggrieved” by the affair, used Pakistan's intelligence agencies in spreading the scandal about the evasion of electricity bills worth PKR 70 million ($740,000) by Galaxy Textile Mills, a company owned by Khar's husband and father-in-law.

Pakistani officials have dismissed the report, but according to a Hindustan Times report, Khar’s husband on Tuesday submitted an application to the Federal Investigation Agency for subscriber details and call data record of two “suspected” numbers.

The report said the high-profile romance had been discussed in “hushed tones” in Islamabad for the past couple of weeks.

Pakistan