Bilawal gets his way

Though shrunk to a mere rally, the PPP movement kicks off on the 19th

Chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari reached Lahore to lead the PPP’s Thursday rally, a belated retort to the snub of his four demands by the PML-N. It marks the start of a public movement from city to city and in Parliament till all PPP goals were realised. From Lahore to Faisalabad, the slow moving procession will provide ample opportunity to Bilawal to vent his  rhetoric. But will his first protest outing attract the impressive numbers needed to promote self-belief and restore sagging morale among the jiyalas? Will the old slogans and songs ring out once again and the never-say-die spirit resurface in the heartland of the Sharif’s, or will the show only be a pale shadow of the past, lifeless, soulless and heartless? Total success seems an uphill task indeed.

The PPP is a ship pulled in opposite directions by two captains. The first view, endorsed by the Co-Chairman, favours a flexible policy of conciliation to avoid antagonizing the PML-N, with whom a deal can be cut over core interests, in tandem with other parties. A comeback in the Punjab in 2018 looks bleak, and it is better to retain the Sindh majority and thereby its presence in the Senate. Considering the PML-N’s iron grip in the Punjab and the PPP’s own misrule over five years, this cynical policy has its merits.

But the senior provincial leadership holds that Punjab is the real battleground, and the lion’s share of the party’s resources, energies and strategems should aggressively target it. The Punjab PPP’s Old Guard apprehends that it does not stand a chance in the next elections without the party’s revival in a big way in the largest province. Aitzaz Ahsan has suggested that the Elder Zardari stay out of decision making and act only as a counselor. Bilawal seems precariously positioned between these two differing viewpoints. And this is the real PPP dilemma, for a divided self is no self.