- The Bilawal factor
The Peoples Party, under Bilawal now that former president Zardari takes a back seat, has not only done a better-than-expected job at the election, but also managed the post-election circus more maturely than other parties. For one thing, there were very few, if any, chances of the party doing better than the last outing, yet it grabbed 43 seats to end number-3. It seems Bilawal’s personal touch on the campaign trail did, after all, undo some of the damage still left over from the 2013 rout. For another, the party had lost so much face that few expected it to retain the Sindh government. So at the end of the day it was definitely something Bilawal could go home happy-enough with.
PPP also, to no small extent, took the wind out of the boycott drive just as Maulana Fazl and friends were gathering momentum. If all parties had collected under the banner of rigging, there would only be so much ground for PTI to stand on. And who knows how that particular paralysis would have played out if things had really moved in that direction. But Bilawal, happy with the final numbers and his provincial government, wisely decided to strengthen his democratic credentials by sitting on opposition benches for this cycle. Besides, unlike the Maulana and his PML-N colleagues, Bilawal is young and would rather wait till the next (and next?) general election before making a grab for Islamabad.
PPP is also the only party so far to name its chief minister. All in all it has come out of the election better off, cumulatively, than it expected. It seems Bilawal’s personal touch is already showing good results. Back in the Zardari days, not too long ago, the PPP boss would invite everybody to see him whenever he’d visit an important constituency. The son, on the other hand, is more comfortable going to the people and mixing like his late mother used to. Quite different from his father’s wheeling and dealing style, Bilawal’s leadership seems to have done the party a lot of good so far.