Political delusions

Politicians are prone to making statements that are disconnected from reality. It is part and parcel of being a politician, they are expected to periodically make fools of themselves, and Pakistan People’s Party Co-Chair Bilawal Bhutto Zardari has just dived into the deep end of the foolery pool. He and his party are to ‘politically conquer’ Punjab, quoth he. Young Bilawal is of course entitled to his opinion as is anybody, but recent history indicates that any possibility of such an outcome to his newly-announced ‘mass contact’ campaign is suggestive of the unwise ingestion of hallucinogenic fungi.



Population-wise the province is larger than all other provinces put together and is firmly in the control of the Pakistan Muslim League — Nawaz (PML-N) and has been for many years. The PPP was roundly trounced in the 2013 elections winning 8 seats out of 371 in the Punjab assembly and was similarly laid low in the recent local bodies elections as well. More than one analyst has commented to the effect that the PPP of today was little more than a pressure group rather than a political party of note and weight. Predicting victory against odds like that is folly of the highest order.

The team that are to accomplish this feat — ‘saving Punjab’ though from what is unclear particularly as it leads the country developmentally and economically by some way — is aided by PPP Central Punjab President Qamar Zaman Kaira who maintains that the PPP will ‘thrash’ the PML-N in 2018. This is indicative of no more than he and his leader both eating out of the same bag of mushrooms. Reference is repeatedly made to the ‘four demands’ of the PPP which have connections to the Panama Papers affair and which the PML-N government can safely choose to ignore — and have. Claims that the PPP would have fared better in the last elections had they not been rigged are risible. If Bilawal is to make any inroad he needs dynastic surgery to separate himself from the dead weight of his father. The real struggle to come is for the heart of the party, not the conquest of Punjab.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 20^th, 2017.

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