The leadership of the PPP has so frequently abused the Sindh card that it has now become counterproductive. What this party has forgotten is that ZAB never ever resorted to such measures and his power base was in Punjab, KP and Sindh. Mohtarma Benazir also ensured that the PPP under her watch should never be portrayed as a regional party by exploiting provincial or ethnic sentiments. Even in the present National Assembly the PPP has over 60 MNAs, on elected and reserved seats, from Punjab and without this support the party could never have formed a government in Islamabad.
The PPP has itself to blame for its failure to serve the people who voted them into power. While hundreds of thousands were rendered homeless by floods in Sindh for two consecutive years, the party leadership found it appropriate to go on useless foreign trips instead of remaining in Pakistan and ensuring that rehabilitation work was carried out efficiently.
It was in Karachi on 18 Oct 2007 that Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto’s rally was attacked and over 180 party activists killed. She escaped this attacked but fell to the assassins’ bombing in Rawalpindi. The attack in Karachi was deadlier than the one that took her life in Rawalpindi. Her killers have not been caught but instead the Sindh card was abused and what was a national tragedy was portrayed as the victimisation of a Sindhi leader.
What we have forgotten is that when ZAB was killed on orders of a military dictator, it was Jiyalas from Punjab and KP who self-immolated themselves in protest. When BB returned after her exile during the dark days of Zia-ul-Haq, millions came out in Lahore to welcome her. Ironically, while hundreds were dying in Punjab of dengue virus, the PPP led by Asif Ali Zardari was only seen to be mocking at their plight instead of offering concrete support from the federal government. They forgot that many from Punjab had voted for them in 2008.
SYED JAWAID HUSSAIN
Multan