Recklessly outspoken Aitzaz

That fiercely independent Aitzaz Ahsan had not parted company with the PPP leadership so far, it was a political miracle. An ordinary mortal could not have put up with so much flak as he did. Once, he had earned Benazir Bhutto's anger just because he had attended a marriage function in the district Chaudhry clan's family.
At another time he was made to cool his heels for good three days in London before being granted audience by BB as she was in parleys with Nawaz Sharif. After her assassination he had to receive a heavy drubbing from Asif Ali Zardari, his new party boss, during a caucus on his pro-judges' reinstatement stance. That is public; what was his plight in get-togethers of the party we don't know.
But he had stuck to the party because 'the PPP blood flows in my veins' he said in a recent TV channel interview. That may not be possible anymore, given his endorsement of charges of corruption against his party's top leadership, both living and dead. According to the New York Times (Magazine), Barrister Aitzaz Ahsan argued that "most charges of corruption against Benazir Bhutto and Asif Zaradri were justified".
"The type of expenses that she had and he has are not from sources of income that can be lawfully explained and accounted for". "...the charges of corruption" and in Zardari's case of "kidnapping, ransom and murder", were justified, the interviewer quotes the "almost recklessly outspoken" Aitzaz Ahsan.
As expected, Aitzaz has questioned this reportage and has termed it 'out of context'. We do, however, know that only a day before the deposed Chief Justice, Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, said that 'it's not that Aitzaz was asked to leave, in fact, he has left' - whatever it means.
It was a measure of late party chairperson Benazir Bhutto's charismatic personality and her tight grip that the PPP survived her tragic removal from the scene in one piece, even when the new leader ditched the nominee for the premiership after the February 18 elections.
But that unity in the party ranks was not to last long enough, especially when the new leader, Asif Zardari, started calling the shots. There was widespread skepticism in the party about his political deal with the MQM and some top-notch appointments. Clearly, some of the party stalwarts like Makhdoom Amin Fahim, Safdar Abbasi, Nawab Yousuf Talpur and Raza Rabbani were being sidelined and a kind of 'kitchen cabinet' installed in the Zardari House was taking over the day to day running of government.
But, quintessentially, it was his approach to the judges' issue that caused deep fissures in the party. The realpolitik, the apparent motivating force behind Zardari's stance in the judges' issue, does not appear to be fitting well into the party's ethos and its philosophy as embraced by its workers and leaders. And Aitzaz Ahsan is one of those who disagree with Zaradri's approach. How many of them are for getting a clean chit of health courtesy the National Reconciliation Ordinance, is also a question that needs to be answered in full.
Barrister Aitzaz Ahsan should be the last person to break away from PPP, especially when the party workers and leaders sharing his worldview are not in minority in the party. He is essentially a 'political animal', but he has come face to face with Hobson's choice to carry either of the two: his party card or the judicial cross.
He has already given up on his sure-to-win National Assembly by-election, and should he come to the fork to take a road to his final destination he would carry the cross.
The year-long leadership of the lawyers' movement has already given him the iconic stature and there is nothing for which he would barter it away. What he did or did not say to the New York Times' correspondent will become clear in the next few days.