Bilawal, an educated young man, has to make a choice of following the legacy of either ZAB or AZ
LAHORE: This letter refers to media reports about the choice of venue and the glamour, pomp and show for holding 50-years ceremony of the PPP launch by its founder Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto (ZAB) and his colleagues — all educated men of character, with integrity and devotion. I was among many other friends of my age group who attended the launch on a vacant plot opposite the Auriga Cinema and have painfully seen it decline from being the party whose leader captured the hearts and minds of young men and women, giving hope to poor farmers and labourers, to its present abysmal decline. The choice of venue for its inauguration in 1966 compared with the fort-like venue of a controversial housing society says it all.
ZAB was politically ambitious and had many weaknesses but even his worse critics cannot accuse him of institutionalised corruption, involvement with land and sugar mafias, kickbacks, pilfering of the state coffers, or compromising state sovereignty and national interest for petty commercial benefits. He chose to live in the hearts and minds of people instead of building and buying castles like Normandy Chauteau, Manoir de la Reine Blanche in France and luxury houses in London, Dubai and the USA. Compare calibre and choice of ZAB’s cabinet members and the controversies and scams of those appointed by Asif Zardari (AZ). It was ZAB’s choice of a man of integrity and commitment like Rafique Saigol and Nur Khan that PIA was resurrected from ruins. Compare this with AZ’s choice of semi-literate cronies with a history of financial impropriety and under whom the national airline has deteriorated to a state of perpetual bankruptcy.
ZAB wanted a place in history and was pioneer of our nuclear defense strategy, which today offers an effective deterrence against enemy attacks. The PPP survives solely on the legacy of ZAB and his daughter but this cannot go on endlessly; its edifice is crumbling, unless its political leadership decides to follow the legacy of its founder. Bilawal, an educated young man, has to make a choice of following the legacy of either ZAB or AZ, both of whom had nothing in common insofar as values, politics, ideology and goals are concerned.
Malik Tariq Ali
Published in The Express Tribune, December 7th, 2016.
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