PPP co-Chairman Asif Ali Zardari's confrontational speech against the Army chief General Raheel Sharif at a party event on Tuesday, completely out of sync with his politics of 'reconciliation', is to become memorable more for its inaptness than anything else. The soldiers are not doing anything bad at this time. The operations in Fata and elsewhere are backed by political consensus and hence need to be supported. It is obvious though that Zardari knows something that we don't know just yet, which has made him very, very angry.
Actually, it is not difficult to guess what is bothering the PPP leader considering that last week, in his report to the Karachi apex committee, Director General of Sindh Rangers had said certain influential individuals and parties were involved in collecting as much as Rs 230 billion annually through criminal activities, like land grabbing and extortion; and that there is a nexus between this money and terrorism. The day before Zardari's outburst the Rangers had stormed the Sindh Building Control Authority and confiscated records of land allegedly allotted illegally to certain influential individuals. NAB is also reported to be actively pursuing corruption cases against some PPP eminences. As regards the DG Rangers' report, it has not made any startling disclosures. Not too long ago, a Supreme Court bench hearing the Karachi law and order case too had named almost all political parties in Karachi for patronising criminal elements.
The PPP should have nothing to fear from the Rangers actions. Those falsely implicated can seek redress from courts. Instead, Zardari made an offer to the Army saying "stop the character assassination of our party" or else he would make public a list of "your colleagues" accused in different cases, in which event "you will be destroyed." Basically, he is saying you ignore my side's excesses I'll ignore yours. Also disappointed with the PML-N government for not being helpful enough, he reminded the Prime Minister of the favour he had done him during the PTI sit-in saying "there would have certainly been reelection if the PPP had resigned at the time." Interesting, his argument in both instances is about give-and-take rather than the merit of the case at hand.
That is the problem with his brand of politics. According to the former president's lights, as demonstrated during five years of the PPP rule at the Centre and more than seven in Sindh, political power is meant to serve personal interests of those in government rather than the people who elect them. He also seems to think that the people can be easily fooled. If he so decided, he claimed, "roads in Sindh and from Fata to Karachi, will be closed; and they will open only on my call." In other words he can shut and open the entire country at will. The claim is either intentioned to mislead or is self-delusional. After years of misgovernance, and a long trail of corruption scandals the co-Chairman would be lucky if he can organise a decent gathering in any of the provinces other than Sindh. Then there is the question, where are the old party leaders who stayed in touch with the jiyalas and commanded respect among the party cadres? It is difficult to imagine individuals like Rehman Malik, Dr Asim Hussain, even Mian Manzoor Wattoo bringing out people in various parts of the country to respond to the party leader's call.
It is pertinent to recall that the PPP performed badly in the 1997 general elections primarily because of a strong perception of corruption. The voter turnout hovered around mid and upper 20s principally because the party's traditional supporters stayed home not wanting to vote for their party and yet unable to bring themselves to vote for the other major mainstream party, the PML-N. That was during the time of Benazir Bhutto who possessed the leadership quality to reclaim some of the party's old support base, and did that in death by returning the PPP to power riding on a sympathy wave for her. It would not be surprising if General Pervez Musharraf, in a power-sharing agreement then with the PPP under the infamous NRO, also helped. But the Zardari PPP has been on a constant downward slide. It could not survive forever using the Bhutto name; the new leadership needed to try and deliver on its promises of a better life for the common man, but didn't care at all.
As a result, the PPP suffered almost a complete rout in Punjab, once its stronghold, during the last elections. The same happened in the recent parliamentary elections in Gilgit-Baltistan as well as local government polls in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. The Zardari-led PPP has effectively reduced itself to a regional party status. So who is going to pay heed to his calls from Fata to Karachi?
There is widespread support for the Zarb-e-Azb operation as well as intelligence-based actions in urban areas to rid this society of the scourge of terrorism. Press reports have also been saying for a while that General Sharif has given a go-ahead to those concerned to investigate allegations of wrongdoing against his predecessor. The PPP Co-Chairman seems to have chosen the wrong time to throw a challenge in the direction he has.
As it is, the PPP is in no position to respond to the call Asif Ali Zardari has threatened to give. Which merits the question, why did he say something that so obviously is undoable? An informed guess would be that he realizes the gravity of the situation, and that action in corruption cases involving his party men is not going to be reversed, come what may. And hence the tough talk is meant to keep the hopes of a better future alive for the party faithful. Before the situation gets too serious, however, he himself is likely to try and evade trouble by flying off to safer environs abroad. Young Bilawal can be expected to stay back to revitalise the party.
saida_fazal@yahoo.com