PPP shake-up: old wine in new wineskins

Party will accommodate ideologues in top cadres but will rely on winning horses in next elections

ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan Peoples Party is reorganising in an attempt to regain the political ground it has lost to rival groups over the past few years. But the shake-up appears to be an effort to put old wine in new bottles because the party, according to insiders, plans to accommodate ideologues in top cadres.

But ideological workers wouldn’t be given party tickets for upcoming general elections because the PPP would be relying on ‘winning horses’ to win the vote. “We are putting in place a system of checks and balance. Party cadres will serve as a check on its election contestants,” a top PPP leader told The Express Tribune.

In a telling development, the young PPP chairperson, Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, has already offered defectors to return to the party folds. “Our doors are always open for our ideological leaders and workers who have jumped ship for one reason or the other,” Bilawal was quoted as telling members of PPP’s coordination committee for Punjab.

However, the scion of the Bhutto dynasty would not hold intra-party election. Instead he would nominate office-bearers for its provincial chapters in the first phase. The PPP chairperson had dissolved all wings of the party and appointed coordination committees for all the provinces.

The committees have been tasked to visit each district and hold meetings of general party workers to seek their opinion for reorganisation in their respective provinces before recommending new provincial office bearers.

According to insiders, the PPP will be focusing on reactivating itself in Punjab where it wants to put in place a strong organisational set-up. The provincial coordination committee has forwarded four names — Qamar Zaman Kaira, Nadeem Afzal Chan, Rana Farooq Saeed and Qasim Zia — for the slot of provincial president. Similarly, Chaudhry Manzoor, Nadeem Asghar Kaira and Syed Hassan Murtza have been short-listed for the office of provincial secretary general.

Bilawal will ‘interview’ these nominees to pick out the most suitable persons for key roles. The ‘interviews’ are likely to start after October 18 at the Bilwal House in Lahore. The process will be replicated in other provinces in the next stage. “Chan has opted to stay out of the race, leaving Kaira and Saeed as top contenders,” one insider told The Express Tribune.

The new office-bearers would undertake the daunting task of mobilizing the party at the grassroots. Their biggest challenge, however, would be to woo back defectors who have since joined either the PML-N or PTI. In the current political situation however, insiders say the party knows it well that it will be very difficult, especially in Punjab.

“Some politicians in Sindh might be interested in rejoining the PPP, but we do not see this happening in Punjab or Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa,” a PPP leader said when The Express Tribune asked him if the party has shortlisted names who could potentially return to PPP’s folds.

Apart from Shah Mehmood Qureshi, who had quit the PPP while it was in power, many other prominent politicians – notable among them former ministers Raja Riaz and Sumsam Bukhari – defected recently.

“The Herculean task is restoring the voter confidence. Results of the recent by-elections show a clear trend, especially in Punjab,” said another PPP leader, who is critical of the party’s role as opposition. “Political opportunists who keep on switching loyalties will always be readily available. But if you’re talking about bringing in clean faces, I don’t see that happening, at least in near future,” he added.

PPP’s second-tier leadership, especially the younger lot, has been pressing Bilawal to lead the party in parliament. A strong faction within the party is not happy with the performance of Syed Khurseed Shah as leader of opposition.

This faction wants the party to take an aggressive approach against the government. The fact that Bilawal witnessed proceedings of the recent joint sitting of parliament and leading his party’s delegation in the all-party conference convened by the prime minister earlier last week is a part of the strategy where he would be leading his party in the coming days.

While former president Asif Ali Zardari would continue calling the shots behind the scenes, Bilawal will be the new public face of PPP.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 12^th, 2016.