Benazir Bhutto has become “chairperson of the PPP for life”. This has led pundits to lambast the decision as an extraordinary affront to the principles of party democracy (which it is, of course). But so what? It’s not as if Ms Bhutto’s PPP is a deserted island in a sea of democracy. On the contrary, hardly any political party in this country practises the lofty democratic principles that it preaches. Indeed, political leaders are “leaders for life” even when they have been pronounced politically dead a long time ago. So if Ms Bhutto has formalised her “leadership for life”, it’s no big deal. In fact, there may be sound political reasons for doing so.
The fact is that Ms Bhutto’s “elevation” comes on the eve of judgments by the Ehtesab benches of the Lahore High Court which are expected to go against her. This has fueled speculation not only about her political future but also about that of her party. Certainly, senator Saifur Rahman is desperately hoping that when Ms Bhutto is knocked out of parliament, the PPP, which has already lost much of its shine, will become “headless”, fall victim to infighting and powerplays and slowly disintegrate, leaving Mian Nawaz Sharif master of all he surveys. Nor is the good senator the only one wishing for Ms Bhutto’s speedy consignment to the dustbin of history. There is no dearth of Bhutto “loyalists” who would love to don the mantle of PPP leadership after Ms Bhutto has been forced to bite the dust. But everyone must now think again. Ms Bhutto has pre-empted such hopes or divisive tendencies by stressing that she has always been the Peoples Party and will always remain so, come hell or high water, much as it was when she was exiled from Pakistan from 1979 to 1986.
It is also clear that Ms Bhutto had no choice in the matter, even if she has sometimes expressed a wistful longing to retire from active leadership of the party and become an “elder statesman” while tending to her family. The fact is that Ms Bhutto’s conviction for corruption may not merely entail disqualification from parliament but also a stiff term in prison, the loss of much of her wealth, an end to her relationship with Mr Asif Zardari and a painful rupture from her children. In short, everything that she loves so dearly and desperately in life. Without the PPP to back her up and bail her out, Ms Bhutto’s fate would be personally more traumatic than that of her father. With the personal and the political so inextricably fused in Ms Bhutto’s life at this stage of her political career, is it any wonder then that she has chosen to formalise the situation by becoming “leader of the PPP for life“?
Indeed, Ms Bhutto’s witting estrangement from the likes of Mr Aftab Sherpao falls perfectly into context. Mr Sherpao has long harboured ambitions of being his own leader. In fact, he could have been counted upon to make a serious play for the leadership of the PPP in the event of Ms Bhutto’s conviction. That would have spelt the death-knell of Benazir Bhutto because it would have split the party badly at a moment of confusion and demoralisation and precluded it from mounting a strong counter-attack to save its beleaguered leader. So Mr Sherpao had to be isolated, weeded out and replaced by a more loyal provincial leadership before time ran out. That, too, has been accomplished.
For much the same sort of reasons, it was also time for Ms Bhutto to part ways with Maulana Tahirur Qadri. The maulana was angling for a stake in the Pakistan Awami Itehad which would have spelt trouble for Ms Bhutto in her hour of need. If she had given in to him, he would have exploited the platform of the PAT to “negotiate” with the government rather than try and “bail” Ms Bhutto out of her impending travails. Nawabzada Nasrullah, however, is a big nobody without the PPP, so he can be handed over the reins of PAT because Ms Bhutto now holds the reins of the PPP for life!
But Ms Bhutto isn’t quite finished with preparations for “life after death”. She is trying to woo the Americans by all manner of political somersaults. She is gearing up her party by raising the tempo of political agitation. She is attacking the “partiality” of the judges sitting in judgment over her. And she may be expected to raise the spectre of Sindhi nationalism before long. She is digging her heals in and she won’t be thwarted without a bruising fight.
This is excellent politics! One would not have expected anything less than this from the daughter of the East. But, from the point of view of the people of Pakistan, it would make for even better politics if senator Saifur Rahman should succeed in his efforts to have Ms Bhutto convicted, disqualified and knocked out “for life”. In the event, we would be rid of one of the two most corrupt political “leaders” in the history of Pakistan while creating the necessary pre-conditions of eliminating the other one in time to come.