What happened to the PPP?

The dilemma of present-day PPP leaders is that they don’t have any ideological attachment with the legacy of Bhutto.

Top PPP leaders, right from President Asif Ali Zardari, Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani to the brigades of ministers, appear to have quietly accepted the bitter fact that they do not have the required competence, courage and political will to protect the fast-diminishing ideology and democratic credentials for which their old guard once stood and for which it even went to the gallows.

The most troubling thing about present-day PPP leadership is that it does not seem to have maintained even a remote link with the legacy of Zulifkar Ali Bhutto (ZAB) and Benazir Bhutto (BB), both of whom were assassinated by the very forces they had dared to challenge.

This analysis makes us draw a disturbing conclusion: Have present-day PPP leaders brought about fundamental changes in their personal thinking and in the party’s philosophy, dumping the ‘outdated’ party manifesto, because of the lessons they have learnt from the tragic fall of ZAB and BB?

If the shameful silence over the most foul assassination of Governor Punjab Salmaan Taseer was not enough, the shocking news about a Hindu MPA from Sindh disowning his country and migrating to India has further put a dent in the claims of PPP leaders that they stand to protect Jinnah’s Pakistan. In fact, the persecution of Hindus has become a regular feature in Sindh, where the PPP is in charge.

The most unfortunate aspect of this disturbing development is that PPP leaders, instead of applying a zero-tolerance policy to send a strong message to the killers of Governor Taseer, made themselves a laughing stock when they tried to hold Mian Nawaz Sharif and Shahbaz Sharif responsible for the conditions that led to the murder. The PPP leaders conveniently forgot that both brothers had, at least, managed to get a joint resolution condemning the assassination of Taseer passed from the Punjab assembly. No question was asked from PPP leaders as to why such resolutions were not passed by the PPP-dominated houses of parliament and the other three provincial governments. Even Prime Minister Gilani, infamously known for standing in the National Assembly to speak on all sorts of trivial matters, preferred to stay quiet on Taseer’s issue.

However, the PPP still has defiant and bold voices, which have refused to be silenced, though they are few in numbers. No doubt, Sherry Rehman stands tall among them, refusing to leave Pakistan despite a shameful telephonic call from Rehman Malik, asking her to immediately do so.

A vocal Fauzia Wahab was another exception. She, too took a bold stance in condemning those who supported Taseer’s killing. Last but not the least, PPP MNA Palwasha Behram joined the ranks of Sherry Rehman and Fauzia Wahab, when she too blasted her own government in the National Assembly for the deafening silence of its government and her fellow parliamentarians over the unfortunate fleeing of Hindus from Pakistan.

The dilemma of the present-day PPP leaders is that they don’t have any ideological attachment with the legacy of Bhutto, as many of them were equally loyal to General Ziaul Haq. Even Gilani and Sajjad Qureshi, (the father of Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi) shared power with General Zia, who had hanged Bhutto. So, the shameful fall of the PPP is quite understandable. When the PPP’s men have preferred to bury their heads in sand in the name of political expediency and merely to complete their five-year tenure in power, then it becomes more important for all of us to show respect to these few good and brave women from the PPP.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 14^th, 2011.