Changing dynamics of the PPP

The party of the past is not the party of the present

Political parties are integral to democracy. It is not possible to conceive of functional democracy in the absence of openly competing political parties that subscribe to constitutionalism and democracy. A political party can be instrumental to promoting political cohesion and building nationwide political architecture if it thinks and acts in terms of the whole nation or country rather than limiting itself near-exclusively to a particular ethnic, linguistic, regional or religio-cultural identity.

A meaningful political presence and support in all four provinces implies that the activities of a political party must be consequential for the politics inside different provinces or regions rather than a party simply having some token offices and recruiting some members to claim an all-Pakistan standing.

Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) has a tangible presence in all four provinces and Gilgit-Baltistan. Its members of the parliament get elected from all provinces and it is also present in all provincial assemblies.

The PPP-led coalition governments at the federal level and in Sindh and Balochistan have been functioning since March 2008. However, these governments have not been successful in ensuring good and effective governance and addressing socio-economic problems of the people.

The major predicament of the PPP-led federal government is that it could not get over the survival question because it faced challenges from political adversaries and state institutions. The military top brass built pressures on it from time to time with reference to their professional and corporate interests. The Supreme Court has also kept strong pressure on the federal government in the cases filed by political adversaries of the PPP. The Supreme Court, and at times, the High Courts, took up matters relating to the federal government on their own, what is described as the suo-motu action. The prime minister faces a contempt of court charge because of his refusal to the Supreme Court direction to revive criminal proceedings against President Asif Ali Zardari in Swiss Courts. The opposition parties also cause problems for the federal government either by street protest or by taking political matters to the Supreme Court for adjudication. This has turned political survival into a higher priority over performance.

The federal government did not collapse under these pressures mainly because the PPP leadership succeeded in building and sustaining partnership with other political parties. President Asif Ali Zardari has been instrumental to building political partnership and he also won-back the MQM when it decided twice to withdraw from the coalition. The coalition partners – PPP, ANP, MQM and PML(Q) – are expected to be accommodative towards each other in the next general elections.

The political survival strategy is part of the changes that have taken place in the PPP over the years. These changes have helped the party to address the current challenges but caused complaints within and outside the party of compromising its ideology and pursuing politics that negated its political heritage. A number of PPP leaders that played key role in its politics in the earlier period are alienated from the present leadership. However, with a few exceptions these alienated leaders continue to subscribe to the PPP ideology and its political legacy while maintaining distance from the current top leadership.

The present day PPP is different from the PPP of the first phase, 1967-1977, on four major counts. First, the leadership of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto (ZAB) owed its origin to popular struggle and mass mobilisation during 1967-71. It cultivated firm roots in the people. In the current context, the PPP leadership fell on the shoulders of Asif Ali Zardari and Bilawal Bhutto from above after the demise of Benazir Bhutto. Had Benazir Bhutto been alive, the composition of the top PPP leadership would have been different.

Second, ZAB legitimised his leadership through his actions in favour of the people. He talked of the present agonies of the people and gave them a vision for the future that gave him legitimacy. The current PPP leadership seeks legitimacy from the past. They talk of ZAB and Benazir Bhutto to seek support for them.

Third, the ZAB era was marked by ideological clarity. He stood for socialism and state control of major sources of economic power. There were people during those days who opposed socialism. Both sides were clear about the future direction of the society. Currently, there is ideological confusion in the PPP and the outside. There is no definite vision for the future of Pakistan. There are high flying slogans that are supportive of modified capitalism.

Fourth, political context has changed over time. ZAB came to power against the backdrop of socio-economic changes in the 1960s by industrialisation in the context of maximum freedom to private sector and free enterprise. ZAB mobilised newly emerging socio-economic classes and activated the hitherto non-active sections of the populace. Pakistan’s current politics is shaped mainly by the fallout of the political and military changes in and around Pakistan in the 1980s and the 1990s that increased religious orthodoxy, religious-cultural intolerance, militancy and terrorism. All this makes governance a more complex task than was the case in the past.

As Pakistan approaches the general elections, the PPP leadership will have to adopt a host of measures to sustain its commanding position. It needs to put its house in order by strengthening interaction between the leadership and its dedicated workers. Party machines needs to be activated by the leadership at all level by seeking out the workers.

The federal government can improve its image if it manages shortages of electricity and gas. It needs to inform the people how prices of oil products are determined, starting from oil’s prices international market to what a consumer pays at the petrol and gas stations.

Electricity and gas shortages have adversely affected industry and increased unemployment and poverty. If the federal government cannot manage power and gas shortages, it will suffer from irreparable electoral losses.

Corruption in the official circles may be exaggerated by the media but even the sympathisers of the PPP say that it has increase over the years. The government must be seen as working towards controlling it.

Further, the leadership and their immediate families should avoid life of glamour and pursue a low profile life style. If the PPP leaders cannot address these issues, they will find it difficult to sustain their present position simply by invoking the past. They need to strengthen performance legitimacy.

The writer is an independent political and defence analyst.