Dr Abdul Razak Shaikh
PPP again lost a provincial seat from Larkana, home district of the Party’s
founder Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto and his daughter Shaheed Benazir Bhutto. What has happened? While there may be charges that the result was engineered in the general election, the by-election showed that either the provincial government was not competent to prevent a repeat, or that disaffection has set in. Disaffection does not result from voter fatigue, but because the PPP has been weak in performance. The PPP has for too long assumed that Sindh is its right by loyalty to Shaheed leaders might be all very well, but the modern voter wants a greater result for his vote than the rather hollow satisfaction of a particular party or a particular individual holding office.
Instead of seeking to improve performance, the PPP should stop blaming others for this defeat and acknowledge that this particular constituency has probably had enough of it and has slipped out of the hands of the party’s leadership. It should also remember that its provincial government has not improved its performance, especially in its service delivery in the fields of education, health and infrastructure development. It should not ignore the fact that its latest defeat has been political, and any renewal will also have to be political. PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari said that we will challenge this rigging at every forum. The truth can’t be hidden. We will expose this selection. We will have re-election and take back this seat. He alleged that the PPP candidate was not even allowed inside polling stations.
PPP’s Jameel Ahmed Soomro managed to secure only 26,021 votes against GDA’s Moazzam Ali Abbasi, who received 31,557 votes to retain the seat. I am proud of PPP workers for fighting an honourable election, despite immense pressure from the NAB arresting and sending notices to PPP workers and their families, (said Bilawal Bhutto Zardari). The PPP needs to look at its second consecutive defeat in PS-11 Larkana, in a larger context as to why they have been constantly losing since 2013. Interestingly, Moazzam Abbasi, who has defeated PPP’s Jamil Soomro, belongs to a family of a veteran PPP leader and former Deputy Speaker of the National Assembly of the 70s, late Dr. Ashraf Abbasi. She and her family remained associated with the PPP till the assassination of Benazir Bhutto. In the post-BB’s era, they developed differences with former President Asif Ali Zardari and the family parted ways. In the last general election, he defeated the daughter of PPP Sindh President Nisar Khuhro after the latter was disqualified.
Bilawal Bhutto has a long way to go but the fact remains that the PPP after Benazir, has not recovered. The way they were wiped out from Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa since 2013, was unprecedented. The PPP and Bilawal need to come with an alternate politics to challenge the PTI in Punjab and the only way they could do it is by setting good examples in Sindh, where they are in power since 2008. Besides, they have to do something different in both central and southern Punjab to regain some ground. On the contrary, they are now facing challenges in Sindh, where they still have a firm grip but they should not ignore some results in its strong constituency. In the past, the PPP had also lost the same seat with Murtaza Bhutto, when the late Begum Nusrat Bhutto campaigned for her son against the PPP candidate. Thus, it was never a safe seat for the PPP due to educated people of the city and PPP backed Metropolitan Corporations’ failure for the infrastructure of the city, the city loved by Shaheed ZAB.
PPP decided to challenge the results in the election tribunal, which is right of every candidate and the report of independent observer group FAFEN also gave them some hope; it is still better for the party to look to the challenges ahead including the deteriorating conditions of roads, sewerage, health and governance issues, considering they are in power constantly since 2008. It is a dilemma of our political culture that no one accepts defeat with grace. Instead, they take shelter by blaming opponent or hidden forces for the result. It is true that elections in Pakistan are often ‘managed’ but there are other more serious factors as well within these parties.
PPP has a challenge ahead and they still have time to improve party position by setting some good examples. Issues of governance and strong narrative could not only help them in Sindh but could also have its impact in Punjab and the KP. They have to do something more than merely raising slogans. If PPP has fully paid attention to the main cities’ issues like drinking water, roads, proper cleanness, improvement of sewerage system then I could say no one can defeat Pakistan People’s Party in Sindh and still Shaheed Bhutto and his daughter are governing from their graves in Ghari Khuda Bux.
— The writer is retired officer of Sindh Govt.
