As Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) scrambles to action to figure out the reasons behind the crushing defeat in the May 11 elections, close associates of President Asif Ali Zardari have begun to believe that there was a “well-thought, well-calculated and deep-rooted conspiracy” against the electoral success of PPP.
A close associate of President Asif Ali Zardari, who is also a member of his party’s think tank, has said that keeping Zardari from participating in political activities and getting threats from the Taliban were a major feature of this conspiracy.
The source said that the main objective of this conspiracy was to eliminate the PPP from the political process.
Hinting heavily towards the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), the source said that the conspiracy was prepared in Lahore last year and the special arrangements were made for its successful implementation in the early months of the current year.
The source said that the PPP’s leadership and voters were intentionally targeted and fears of Taliban attacks had proved an effective strategy to distance the PPP from their voters.
Furthermore, the source alleged that the postponement of the death anniversary of Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto, the founder of the party, was the first sign of this conspiracy.
The source further cited attacks on PPP’s election campaign to be the reason behind the party’s defeat in the elections.
According to the source, most well-placed bureaucrats were also key-players of this conspiracy who allegedly played their assigned role effectively in the mechanical electoral process.
The source said that even the caretaker government was not fully aware of this conspiracy and the hidden methods had been used very cleverly by the conspirators.
This associate further indicated that even during the training of the electoral staff these bureaucrats played a strong role by giving the staff some special incentives to show the picture of the lion as the electoral symbol to the voters and advising them silently get the lion stamped on by the voters.
Pointing to another aspect of this conspiracy, the source also said that on the election night, the early victory speech by PML-N’s leadership proved to be psychological factor by which the conspirators gave a cosmetic and premature impression of their country-wide electoral success just to complete their pre-planed program of achieving victory.
The source went on to say that the administrative machinery of Punjab was prematurely directed to be ready for the favour of the PML-N’s electoral victory.