ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s only major left-leaning political party is fightingfor its electoral relevance and to preserve the legacy of the country’sbest-known political dynasty weeks before the country heads to the polls.
In his first election campaign, Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, the scion of thestoried Bhutto family who now heads the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP), isattempting to recapture the support his mother, two-time former primeminister Benazir Bhutto, enjoyed on her return from exile in 2007, beforeshe was assassinated on the campaign trail.
Party leaders insist the 29-year-old Bhutto, Oxford-educated like hismother and grandfather – also a former prime minister – brings a fresh newappeal to the party as it attempts to revive its waning fortunes in ageneral election called for July 25.
“With Bilawal in the frontline of our campaign we hope to see a huge swatheof young people join us in our journey to turn back the tide of extremism,misgovernance and anti-democratic trends,” PPP Senator Sherry Rehman toldReuters.
Whether his father, former President Asif Ali Zardari, will be an asset oran obstacle in that effort remains a source of keen debate in Islamabad.
Some analysts and party insiders say Zardari’s tainted image, the result ofnumerous corruption allegations, could cost the party at the polls, whereit will contrast with opposition rival Imran Khan’s relentless anti-graftmessage.
On the other hand, the most likely route back to power could be apost-election alliance with Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Infasf (PTI),which has seemingly eclipsed the PPP in the past five years, and the formerpresident would be a key figure in any such negotiations.
Once the country’s most popular party, the PPP finds itself on the brink ofpolitical irrelevance at the national level, and analysts believe it ismore likely to be Zardari’s ability to cut a deal, rather than his son’spopulist rhetoric, that will keep the party afloat.
“Zardari is looking at himself as a post-election facilitator rather than amajor player in the actual electoral battle,” political analyst Aamer AhmedKhan said. Both PPP and PTI officials were cagey when asked about thepossibility of an alliance, but did not rule it out.
Zardari spent a total of 11 years in jail on charges of corruption andmurder, though he was never convicted of any of the offences for which hewas held and has always maintained his innocence.
He was released in 2004 after an eight-year stretch behind bars, andreturned to Pakistan from self-exile three years later alongside BenazirBhutto in her bid to retake the prime minister´s office and end themilitary rule of General Pervez Musharraf.
Bhutto was assassinated on the campaign trail three months after her returnin a suicide attack, the tragic saga adding to the Bhutto family´s statusas a Pakistani equivalent of America´s Kennedys and India´s Gandhis.
Bhutto´s father Zulfiqar, who founded the PPP, was hanged by GeneralZia-ul-Haq in 1979 after being deposed in a military coup, while herbrother Murtaza was gunned down in the southern city of Karachi in 1996while she was in office.
Zardari was accused of his murder but cleared by the courts. In a wave ofpopular support that was generated by Benazir Bhutto´s return and continuedafter her assassination, the PPP swept to power and Zardari found himselfwielding considerable power from the president´s office.
While all the allegations against him were ultimately dismissed, anddespite overseeing the country’s first transition of power by a civiliangovernment, Zardari retains a tainted reputation.
“I think Asif Zardari has been a victim of massive negative propagandaagainst him,” former PPP senator Farathullah Babar told Reuters. “If any ofthis was true he would not have spent 11 years in jail without a singleconviction.
“We are seeing pre-poll election manipulation where people from allpolitical parties are going and joining one political party,” former PPPsenator Babar said.
PML-N insiders say Sharif´s relationship with Pakistan´s generals is intatters and Sharif himself recently alluded to the military pressuringPML-N lawmakers and pushing them to abandon the party or join PTI.
The military, which has ruled Pakistan for half its history, has repeatedlydenied interfering in modern-day politics. Khan has denied colluding withthe generals.
PPP leaders say their campaign, fronted by Bilawal Bhutto, will focus inbattling extremism and intolerance in a country scarred by more than adecade of militant Islamist violence.
“The People´s Party is going to forcefully and emphatically distinguishitself as the party that believes that in the state of Pakistan we must…not distinguish or discriminate between the adherents of any religion,”senator Aitzaz Ahsan said.
But while the PPP retains significant support in the traditionalBhutto-Zardari family stronghold of Sindh province, it appears to have lostground nationally to the PTI.
A Gallup nationwide poll in March put the party on 17 percent, with PTI on24 percent and PML-N on 36 percent. That suggests the best chance for theopposition parties would indeed be some sort of alliance.
Some in Islamabad believe Zardari has been quietly building ties with themilitary to that end — a suspicion enhanced in March when the PPP declinedan opportunity to lead the Senate and instead helped elect an independentas Senate chairman.
“Zardari believes when the time to cobble together a government arrivesthey will need … someone like him,” said Khan, the political analyst.
“And he will become the kingmaker.”
Imran Khan