Mr Asif Zardari told the media in Naudero, Larkana, 40 days ago that Bilawal Bhutto would be chairman of the Peoples Party, that he (Mr Zardari) would be co-chair (de facto regent) and that Mr Amin Fahim would be the PPP’s nominee for prime minister. Minutes later, in the same press conference, Mr Zardari wisely amended his statement by adding that Mr Fahim’s nomination would be subject to the approval of the Central Executive Committee of the party. And that is how matters rested until Mr Babar Awan, a PPP stalwart who seemingly wants to endear himself to the co-chair, recently announced that Mr Zardari would be a candidate for the prime ministership after winning a seat in the bye-elections after the general elections. Mr Awan’s intervention provoked comment but debate was suppressed when an official party statement reverted to the old position that this issue would be settled by the CEC at the appropriate time. However, Mr Zardari’s interview to Newsweek magazine three days ago has renewed the controversy.
Mr Zardari is quoted as arguing for his candidacy for prime ministership. He is the one who has suffered the most in the party and offered the greatest sacrifice, he says. He has more name recognition than anyone else. He is the designated heir apparent in Benazir Bhutto’s will. And so on. But the adverse reaction to his interview has compelled Mr Zardari to make a retraction. “I was misunderstood”, he says in defence, “the position is unchanged. The CEC will decide the matter at the right time”.
If Mr Babar Awan took an unwise initiative, then he should be zipped up and the matter can be allowed to rest. However, if Mr Zardari was testing the waters, first by eliciting a statement from Mr Awan and then by saying much the same thing to Newsweek, then he must be a wiser man after the event.
The PPP has unnecessarily muddied the waters by raking up the issue of who will be prime minister if it wins the general elections. This has given grist to the mills of the enemies of the party in general and Mr Asif Zardari in particular. It is politically distracting for a party that is bereaved and hoping to ride the sympathy wave for its departed leader Benazir Bhutto to start a debate at this stage on who should and should not be prime minister, suggesting that there is no consensus on a core issue. Certainly, this is not the way to go about building confidence among voters who will be looking to the PPP to demonstrate wisdom, unity and discipline in the face of the odds facing the party and the nation.
Fortunately, however, Mr Zardari has been making all the right moves and noises on other fronts. He has done the proper thing by releasing the contents of Ms Bhutto’s “will and testament” relating to his right to lead the party “in the interim”. The timing – on the eve of the Ms Bhutto’s chehlum – is spot-on. The tens of thousands who go to Naudero should have no doubt about the legitimacy of the party’s leadership as bequeathed by Ms Bhutto.
Mr Zardari’s repeated offer to make a “national government” after winning the general elections is also to be appreciated. It shows that he is acutely aware of the fissures that beset the nation and intends to apply a much needed healing touch. The qualification that such a “national” government will exclude the PMLQ is obviously meant for popular consumption since Ms Bhutto and now Mr Zardari have accused it of complicity in her assassination. At this stage, no one quite knows what the configuration of the coalition governments in the provinces and the centre will look like one month hence. After all, politics is the art of the possible, and President Pervez Musharraf is not about to reveal his hand.
Significantly, Mr Zardari has criticized the US administration for being soft on President Musharraf’s bid to rig the general elections. He rightly says that the International Republican Institute and the National Democratic Institute have both catalogued the steps taken by President Musharraf to rig the elections, “but Washington remains painfully silent”. He has criticized those in the US administration who say that an election under such dreadful conditions can be “good if not perfect” and argued that this “functionally gives President Musharraf and his cronies the green light to rig the elections as long as they don’t get caught red-handed.” Indeed, there can be only one explanation why the IRI and NDI are pulling out of the election-monitoring process. If the elections are rigged, as is widely believed, they will have to say as much, thereby embarrassing the US administration and calling into question its support for President Musharraf. So it is better to stay clear and let the US administration calibrate its policy position without worrying about what American pollsters have to say on the subject.
The PPP and its leadership should stay clear of any controversy at this critical juncture. They should ride the wave and land safely on shore. That is what Benazir Bhutto would have wanted.