|
POLITICS
in Pakistan is getting coursier and coursier.
I am not dwelling on the dynastic succession which
is becoming common in India, not at the Centre
but also in the states. I am referring to Benazir
Bhutto’s husband, Asif Ali Zaradari becoming
in charge of the Pakistan People’s Party
(PPP) until his 19-year-old son, Bilawal, named
as the successor, returned from London after finishing
his studies. Even otherwise, he cannot contest
election until he is 25.
Zaradari has, no doubt, been in jail for many
years, a qualification for leadership in the subcontinent.
But he was jailed for different reasons. He was
involved in cases from blackmail to corruption
and murder. He reportedly admitted owning the
4.35-million pound estate in Surrey, England.
He was known as Mr 10 per cent, extracting money
from industrialists and businessmen. His list
of acts of omission and commission is long.
How is a person like him qualified to become even
the officiating head of the leading most party
in Pakistan? The ethos of the PPP is roti, kapada
aur makan, a slogan which the party’s founder,
Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, coined to give the party
a leftist image. I have not heard anything progressive
attributed to Zaradari. He is one of the biggest
landlords in Sindh.
Feudal tendencies do not debar a person from pretending
to be a “man of the poor.” Zaradari
claims to be one. He has seldom mixed with the
rank and file of the party and came to be a front
leader only because he was the husband of Benazir
Bhutto. His years in politics have not won him
many admirers because of his strong likes and
dislikes. The manner in which he conducted the
press conference, the first after Benazir’s
assassination, indicated as if he was the party.
Benazir Bhutto reportedly nominated him as her
successor in the will she has left behind. If
she did, this could be yet another misjudgment
of her life. Strange, Zaradari should refuse to
show anyone the will which is hand-written. Maulvi
Farooq, the Hurriyat chief, has told Bilawal that
even though he (Farooq) was of his age, he followed
his father. Farooq should know what his unsolicited
advice can mean in the context of Pakistan.
Mukhdom Amin Fahim, the party’s co-chairman,
was also at the press conference. But he sat impassively
and was never asked to say a word. It was quite
odd when Zaradari said in reply to a question
that Fahim or “someone like him” would
be the PPP’s nominee for prime ministership.
It sounded like an off-the-cuff remark. Was this
the decision reached at the PPP executive meeting
at Larkana?
Zaradari said that Gonwa, the wife of deceased
Murtaza Bhutto, brother of Benazir, was consulted.
But she issued a statement to point out that the
leader was chosen by the people, not nominated.
Even if she had said yes, it did not mean that
a Zaradari sibling, rechristened as Bhutto, had
to head the PPP. The issue was the party, not
property. True, the word Bhutto has an advantage.
But the party was choosing a leader, not anointing
a king. The entire thinking is feudal.
The PPP should have convened a meeting of its
leaders from all over the country to elect the
chief. A person like Aitzaz Ahsan should have
been kept in the picture. He led Pakistan’s
first successful agitation of lawyers to have
Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry reinstated.
Aitzaz is still under house arrest. (President
Pervez Musharraf’s personal bias did not
allow him to attend Benazir’s mourning meeting).
Zaradari has not even demanded Aitzaz’s
release or, for that matter, other political detainees.
They are the backbone of the PPP. They were the
party stalwarts when Zaradari was nowhere near
the PPP. They have given their lives. How can
they be ignored? Zaradari has hijacked the party.
Bernard Shaw, an eminent British author, was once
asked why Mahatma Gandhi did not give the leadership
to Jawaharlal Nehru. Shaw said it was not a plug
of tobacco which could be passed on. Nehru was
then working hard to establish himself. Many years
later when he emerged, Gandhiji nominated him
as his successor and wrote a letter suggesting
what he wanted India to be. It is another matter
that the craze of big industry spoilt his dream.
Nawaz Sharif has also withdrawn his call to boycott
the polls. Yet it is an open secret that elections
would be rigged. I believe that Benazir Bhutto
was also thinking of boycotting the elections
because she said that there could be no free and
fair polls under a military-ruled country. Zaradari
is banking not only on the sympathy factor but
also Musharraf’s “blessings.”
Still the sympathy factor will count. Yet, Nawaz
Sharif’s Muslim League has deep roots. It
may hold its own, particularly in Punjab. Moreover,
Nawaz Sharif has grown taller than before because
he has kept distance from Musharraf and the military.
His stance that the judges sacked by Musharraf
should be reinstated will elicit popular support.
The PPP is silent on this subject. Even Benazir
Bhutto was equivocal, much to the embarrassment
of her supporters, among whom are lawyers.
I must admit that the developments in Pakistan
have disappointed me. I thought the fight was
for the restoration of democracy, an institution
where, as we in India know, parliament is supreme,
not the army headquarters. Zaradari says that
they have nothing against the fauj, but the rulers.
Who are they except those in khaki? The tragedy
is that both America and Great Britain want to
give a semblance of democratic legitimacy to Musharraf
and that is the reason why they persuaded Benazir
Bhutto to return to Pakistan despite her warning
that she would be killed on her return.
Meanwhile, I want to tell that I have never found
such a groundswell of support for Pakistan before
as I did after the assassination of Benazir Bhutto.
It was as if every Indian wanted to reach out
to the Pakistanis in their hour of crisis to assure
them that the people of India understood their
grief and wanted to do whatever they could to
share their sorrow. They really meant it when
they said the stability of Pakistan was necessary
for the stability of India.
Benazir Bhutto talked about the “borderless
subcontinent” before returning to Pakistan.
But she was snuffed out before she could pursue
it. In the midst of such feelings, New Delhi’s
suspension of bus and train services between India
and Pakistan, however temporary, was a thoughtless
act. This was the time even to relax visa. Intelligence
agencies must have won the first round till some
one like Foreign Secretary Shiv Shankar Menon,
who was India’s High Commission at Islamabad,
repaired the damage.
|
