Had Zulifqar Ali Bhutto (ZAB) brought off the verdict in his favor, and had he looked at the dead body of Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) in Punjab today, I am certain he would have wished to opt for martyrdom as his destiny in 1979 over political irrelevance in 2014. PPP did not come to this point overnight. Rather, it was left to bleed slowly.
When ZAB was executed, a wave of despondency swept through the party ranks. But the PPP, a party with deep roots which penetrates into the souls of the people, pulled through the crisis. And as demoralized as the party supporters had been, they still did not lose faith altogether. They found Benazir Bhutto(BB), the daughter of ZAB and the former Prime Minister of Pakistan as their new Messiah. Though BB did not carry the magnetism of her father, and the stories about financial corruption also held down her reputation, still she drew enough charisma to keep the party together and fend off a major dissent. With her assassination, however, the spark of ZAB which once illuminated the whole country has petered out.
To grasp the gravity of the situation, let us first go over the election results of 2013 and then compare them with those of 2008.
In May of 2013, PPP won 8 seats - yes, only eight - in the Punjab Assembly out of its 371 positions, a number so low that many political scientists reckon that PPP should now be considered as a pressure group, instead of a formidable political opponent, more or less like the Jamat e Islami which can pull few thousand votes but can never win elections on its own. With 2.15% of the total number of seats, compared to 28.5% in 2008, I agree with their harsh assessment about the party that once claimed Punjab to be its stronghold.
No, they cannot point at the low voter turnout this time - as they always have in the past - after losing in the polls. With 58.5% of the people casting their votes, it is recorded as the highest in recent history. Compared to the 2008 elections, when PPP won 106 seats, the turnout stood low, as low as 48%. The total number of PPP votes also has shrunk bringing another major disappointment to the party. Dropping by more than 60% from 19%, PPP captured only 11% of the votes in these elections. What it means is that none of the new voters supported the party of ZAB while a significant number of old comrades, ‘the jiyalas,’ wound up endorsing other parties too, a trend that if carried over in the next poll would result in the complete extinction of PPP from its current ‘endangered’ status.
How did it all happen? Is it the poor performance of the party? Or is it the emergence of a strong and attractive counter narrative from Pakistan Tehreek e Insaf (PTI)? Unlike before, this time PPP supporters do not hold the establishment responsible for contriving a conspiracy against it, nor do they point fingers at the traditional political rivals like the Pakistan Muslim League (PMLN) or Mian Nawaz Sharif for plotting against the party. Rather, if you listen to them in their private conversations, their anger and disapproval is directed at their own leadership, the petty intra-party power struggle and the corruption scandals.
In my opinion, the party, despite being a victim of it, has presented an incoherent stance on the war against terrorism which has disappointed the masses more than anything else.
Being liberal, PPP claims to stand against religious extremism and fundamentalism. If the party had stood by its claim, it could have carved out support from every sector of the society - the rich, the poor, the educated, the less educated, the professionals, the businessmen and the minorities. After BB’s assassination, their loss too allowed them to hold their grounds against the wishy-washy narrative of both the PML-N and PTI.
But, PPP losing so many lives almost backed out of its commitment. It dragged the Swat operation for as long as it could; watched the growing threat in Karachi under its nose without any strategy to ward it off; balked at launching a grand scale military operation in North Waziristan and on top, it did not even stand by its own Governor, Salman Taseer, who was first wrongfully accused of blasphemy, and later on assassinated by his security guard. The PML-N administration, infamous for its connections with banned outfits, could have been leaned on to take action against the jihadi organizations. Nonetheless, the party of BB, now drenched in fear of a religious backlash, did not support the changes that the blasphemy law needs and kept quiet instead of fighting back and let the whole province slip out of its hand.
The second major reason for the election setback stemmed from the poor governance in the Center and the involvement of its leadership in financial scandals. Let us be honest, PTI has waged a war against financial dishonesty claiming it to be the biggest evil in the society, the source of our inability to succeed as a nation. During 2008-13, however, when the Punjab Government under PML-N kept its hands clean, PPP leadership, it seemed, was busy plundering each and every penny. It may not be true but the perception sometimes is stronger than reality and when it comes to PPP and corruption, it is not only stronger than reality, it is a divine axiom.
Would Pakistan People’s Party(PPP) ever play a defining role in the politics of Punjab again? With the party’s current leadership, its lack of interest on issues like electricity and economy, its poor choices in picking local representatives and its inability to reconnect with the people, my simple answer is no. With the rise of Imran Khan and the ability of PML-N to maintain its popularity, the only loser in this “Game of Thrones” is PPP. May it rest in peace.
