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 the29-year-old Bhutto, Oxford-educated like his mother and grandfather – alsoa former prime minister – brings a fresh new appeal to the party as itattempts to revive its waning fortunes in a general election called forJuly 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 anasset or an obstacle in that effort remains a source of keen debate inIslamabad. Some analysts and party insiders say Zardari’s tainted image,the result of numerous corruption allegations, could cost the party at thepolls, where it will contrast with opposition rival Imran Khan’s relentlessanti-graft message.

On the other hand, the most likely route back to power could be apost-election alliance with the charismatic Khan’s PakistanTehreek-e-Infasf (PTI), which has seemingly eclipsed the PPP in the pastfive years, and the former president would be a key figure in any suchnegotiations. Once the country’s most popular party, the PPP finds itselfon the brink of political irrelevance at the national level, and analystsbelieve it is more likely to be Zardari’s ability to cut a deal, ratherthan his son’s populist 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.

“MR TEN%”

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 2004after an eight-year stretch behind bars, and returned to Pakistan fromself-exile three years later alongside Benazir Bhutto in her bid to retakethe prime minister’s office and end the military rule of General PervezMusharraf. Bhutto was assassinated on the campaign trail three months afterher return in a suicide attack, the tragic saga adding to the Bhuttofamily’s status as a Pakistani equivalent of America’s Kennedys and India’sGandhis.

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 bythe courts. In a wave of popular support that was generated by BenazirBhutto’s return and continued after her assassination, the PPP swept topower and Zardari found himself wielding considerable power from thepresident’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, often going by thenickname “Mr. Ten%”. “I think Asif Zardari has been a victim of massivenegative propaganda against him,” former PPP senator Farathullah Babar toldReuters. “If any of this was true he would not have spent 11 years in jailwithout a single conviction.”

KINGMAKER

The run-up to the election has been dominated by allegations that thepowerful military has been attempting to destabilise the ruling PakistanMuslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), paving the way to power forcricketer-turn-politician Khan’s PTI. “We are seeing pre-poll electionmanipulation where people from all political parties are going and joiningone political party,” former PPP senator Babar said. PML-N insiders saySharif’s relationship with Pakistan’s powerful generals is in tatters andSharif himself recently alluded to the military pressuring PML-N lawmakersand 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 in battling extremism and intolerance in a country scarred bymore than a decade of militant Islamist violence. “The People’s Party isgoing to forcefully and emphatically distinguish itself as the party thatbelieves that in the state of Pakistan we must … not distinguish ordiscriminate between the adherents of any religion,” senator Aitzaz Ahsansaid.

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 theparty on 17%, with PTI on 24% and PML-N on 36%. That suggests the bestchance for the opposition 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 army-linkedindependent as Senate chairman. “Zardari believes when the time to cobbletogether a government arrives they will need … someone like him,” saidKhan, the political analyst. “And he will become the kingmaker.”