Good for the party, and the people
Now that elections are only a few weeks afar, everything seems to be falling into place. All assemblies have been dissolved peacefully and caretaker setups in their place are in the process of being installed. However, there remained a few kinks in the democratic process that need to be ironed out. One such issue was holding of dual offices by President Asif Ali Zardari, one being his party PPP’s co-chairmanship and the other being the president. As the constitution is clear on the issue and courts showing no leniency, Lahore High Court in particular which is hearing a petition on the issue and has asked the president to relinquish one of the posts, why the issue was dragged so long served possibly no other purposes but political mileage resulting out of the confusion and tension.
The president currently holds no post in the party while Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari has been appointed party’s patron-in-chief, him being less than 25 years of age and thus not qualified for the post of chairman. The other prominent changes include former governor Sardar Latif Khosa and Barrister Masood Kausar who have been elected unopposed as PPP central secretary general and central secretary information, respectively.
Zardari’s decision to quit the post of co-chairman is a good one but the reason given for this does not make any sense. The party’s new secretary general, Sardar Latif Khosa, said that the post of co-chairman was abolished as it was not a constitutional post of the party. One might ask if it was not a post in the party’s constitution, why was it allowed to exist this long? The decision has been taken in an apparent effort to thwart LHC’s pressure in the dual office case. While leaving the party not under any name that ends with Bhutto, Zardari may have taken a risk though there seems to be no considerable threat to the Bhutto family’s domination over the party. Zardari could, however, take over the post of chairman if he is not re-elected president later this year, and thus come back to a position of strength.
Though Jehangir Badr, Naheed Khan and Ghinwa Bhutto all have filed papers with the ECP to allot the name Pakistan Peoples Party to them, and Jehangir Badr’s sidelining in the new scheme of things after his 14 years of service appears to be an outcome of his claiming the name of the party to himself, there actually appears to be no threat to Zardari and Co to lose control over the party’s name. What’s good about this whole shakedown is that the young patron-in-chief and the king-in-the-making, Mr Bilawal, will learn the art of politics by actually jumping in the pool and swimming with the proverbial sharks and crocodiles, instead of just using the name of his mother and grandfather to secure votes.