All our yesterdays

It has been announced that the PPP Co-Chairman Asif Zardari is to come back to Pakistan on December 23^rd. His son, the other Co-Chairman of the party Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari said his father would be returning in a statement issued on Sunday 18^th December. Apparently the doctors that attend to Mr Zardari have decided that he is well enough to make the journey. He has been in indifferent health for several years and is known to have had problems with his heart, diabetes, depression and post-traumatic stress disorder. He was last in the country a year ago but left shortly after making a speech that was critical of the military, saying that army chiefs come and go every three years but politicians are here to stay. In Pakistan politicians are no less transient if longer in post than the head of the army. With a new army chief now ensconced perhaps Mr Zardari is coming to test the waters.



He returns to a country where the political landscape has been altered by the Panama Papers affair, and where the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) is struggling to re-establish a presence after the drubbing it got in the last elections. His son Bilawal has been increasingly politically active after a decidedly shaky start and he has expressed his optimism that the PPP is going to be able to put up ‘a strong Opposition’ to the ruling PML-N in Parliament despite their having a significant majority. The PPP is riding the coattails of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf (PTI) of Imran Khan in the Panama Papers steeplechase, with its ‘Four Demands’ that are no more likely to be met than are the demands of the PTI.

The threat by the PPP to launch an ‘anti government drive’ on December 27^th, the anniversary of the assassination of Benazir Bhutto and mother of Bilawal has a hollow ring to it. Party apparatchiks are doubtless hoping that the arrival of Zardari Snr will be a much needed boost. The reality is that he is yesterday’s man with a bag empty of tomorrows. And Bhutto Jnr? A man yet to find a bag, let alone load it with a political future.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 20^th, 2016.

Like Opinion & Editorial on Facebook, follow @ETOpEd on Twitter to receive all updates on all our daily pieces.