September 28, 2017
By
Saeed Qureshi
The political parties in Pakistan are like
family fiefdoms that keep ruling and delving in the arena of politics and power
as long as they can hold on. There are scores of political parties in Pakistan
and it is seldom that they are headed or presided over by someone who was not
from the founders’ clan.
In Pakistan, the tradition of electing the head
of a political party has been invariably nonexistent. Even if the elections
within the parties are held, a person from the family of the founders’ wins.
There could be exceptions as in case of Jamaat-e-Islami or the Awami National
Party.
Presently there are five main political parties
in Pakistan. Besides there are 31 regional or minor parties. These five main
political parties are PML (Nawaz Sharif), PTI (Imran Khan), PPP (Bilawal
Bhutto), Awami National Party (Asfandyar Wali Khan) and Pakistan Awami Tehrik
(Muhammad Tahirul Qadri). All these are being run by the founders or the family
of the founders. It shows that these parties don’t hold party elections to
elect a more senior or deserving person if not related to the founder or his
clan.
Let us specifically focus on PPP being run by
Bilawal Bhutto as it Chairman. There has been no tradition of choosing or
electing the head of the PPP from among the outsiders of the Bhutto family. It
is patently a dynastic paradigm that negates and cuts across the underlying
objective of political parties to promote democratic traditions and culture in
Pakistan.
After Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, first his wife Nusrat
Bhutto followed by his daughter Benazir Bhutto became successors to run the
party. When Benazir Bhutto died in a terrorist attack on December 30, 2007,
only one page of her will was revealed. In that will she is stated to have appointed
her spouse Asif Ali Zardari as her successor in the event of any tragedy to her
by way of her incarceration or demise. The tragedy struck sooner than later.
On the basis of that dubious will Asif Ali
Zardari assumed the position of the co-chairman or president of PPP continuing
since December 30, 2007 to the present. Bilawal Bhutto was appointed as the Chairman
of the PPP on the same date and his name was changed from Bilawal Bhutto to Bilawal
Bhutto Zardari. He was then merely 17 years old. Understandably, Mr. Zardari
was the de-facto Chairman making all the decisions.
Now let us have a look at the merits of Bilawal
Bhutto in spearheading a party that has been a formidable political force until
Benazir Bhutto as its Chairperson. We all have seen that Bilawal is not well
versed with the political and social culture of Pakistan. Patently he is
inexperienced and indeed a novice in countering the other parties and
addressing public meetings as seasoned politicians or for that matter his
grandfather and illustrious mother had been doing.
Not to speak of restructuring his
declining party and unleashing a visionary manifesto for the uplift of
Pakistan, he seems to be totally oblivious of the ground realities and lacks
even basic awareness of the national issues. His demeanor is docile. His public
utterances are incoherent and interspersed with odd and occasional uncalled-for
outbursts. In short, he doesn’t have the basic ingredients of a seasoned political
leader.
He spent his early life as a student in England.
He doesn’t know much of Urdu. As such his tone and speech are tainted with
British accent and pronunciation. He has to speak from a written text with
great difficulty which in fact is a drawback for a politician who has to move
and infuse the audience.
He is still living under the wings of his father
like the old dynastic periods when a juvenile king was ensconced by his advisers. Even if he comes of political ripe age, his tone and worldview may
not change as he has been aloof with the local life and grassroots culture and
living paradigms of Pakistan. But he has been patently kept in the saddle of
PPP as the Chairman for being the scion of the Bhutto family and to remain
under the wings of his father Mr. Zardari: a political maverick in his own
right.
The way Bilawal roars unnecessarily in Public
meetings and sometime missing the words and phrases make the whole political
campaigning funny and rather bizarre. By virtue of his inexperience and
youthful exuberance he makes statements and utterances that would not be
objective and realistic and are detached from the common jargon. One such
statement that he recently made was to liberate Kashmir perceptibly with Jihad.
While purposely abdicating the party
leadership, Zardari donned it on the head of a young boy who lacked maturity
and experience which comes over a period of time and by going through the
grueling political process. By keeping Bilawal on the front, Zardari has been the factual leader from behind the
curtain. We all know that this
prestigious portfolio has been conferred on him by his father who is calling
shots and making decisions from behind.
The bare fact is that Bilawal Bhutto doesn’t
have the grit, the making, style or the demeanor to serve as a political
leader. We have seen that he spent the period of his adolescence for pretty
long time in London and Dubai (April 1999-December-2011) with short visits to
Pakistan in between)) studying and having a glamorous and flamboyant life at
the same time. The startling details of his fun-laden lifestyle abroad are
available on social media. Bilawal looks more like the type of a young darling
lad of his party and precious scion of Bhutto clan. Yet it would be
erroneous to claim that he can provide a dynamic, revolutionary, rejuvenating
and sterling leadership to PPP.
If Pakistan People’s Party is the party of
masses then it should discard the tradition of having dynastic Chairman or the
president from the Bhutto family. After all it is the party
of the people and it would be befitting if a common worker or senior member is
appointed and elected as its president. That situation would heighten the
prestige of the party and make it look more people and merit-oriented.
This party has seasoned and dedicated
members who are decidedly in better position and possess more merit and
experience to lead the party. It would have been in order if a committed
long-time member and veteran leader from PPP cadres should have been offered or
elected to lead the party. That would have given it an indelible credibility
and resurgence to PPP which has the guts to assail the political landscape of
Pakistan once again.
Why not seasoned people like Khurshid Shah, Mian
Raza Rabbani and similar other senior party leaders are given the reins of this
powerful political party of yester years.
These guys have gone through the
political mill, have been colleagues of ZA Bhutto, spent their entire lives in
serving the party and have suffered enormously on that count.
Their loyalty to the party is unswerving and
uncompromising. They might go ahead in improving partially or wholly the
sullied image of PPP and bring it back to its pristine glory and revolutionary
track, infuse a new spirit in order to serve the people with a renewed dynamism
and dedication.
I would include in my list such stalwarts and
dedicated members whose loyalty and commitment to PPP all along has been
unflinching. Some of the names of such loyal and seasoned persons that I have
in my mind include Farooq Naek, Faryal Talpur, Syed Khurshid Ahmed Shah, Fahmida Mirza, Makhdoom Shahabuddin, Aitzaz
Ahsan, Yousaf Raza Gillani and Saifullah Paracha.