A defiant Bilawal

PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari's speech at Naudero on the eve of Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto's 33rd death anniversary was as much to correct history as to caution the Supreme Court which he believed is "close to repeating the mistake of the past". And he advised the judges to "resist the temptation to obey the establishment," as if the cases now before the apex court against the government is a kind of judiciary-military joint adventure. That come what may Prime Minister Gilani will not write the letter to the Swiss authorities, he left nobody in doubt, re-etching the red line drawn by his father President Asif Ali Zardari, that the PPP "cannot allow the court to dig up my mother's grave and put her martyred corpse on trial". Bilawal couldn't be more direct in his counter offensive. But as they say there is a method to all this; it is necessary for the PPP to sweep Sindh in the coming elections for it to be in a position to form a government at the centre. A faction of the Sindh PPP and PPP voters are not in agreement with the PPP leadership's deals with the MQM, particularly those cut by Interior Minister Rehman Malik. In the evolving electoral scenario this may lead to erosion of the PPP vote bank in Sindh, further cutting the space available to the PPP in the province. Since the Sindh card, the most potent political weapon, so often successfully used by the party is under threat of being lost, the PPP central leadership is duly upset. Hence the young Bilawal's proactive call for 'justice' to the Sindhis as against the Punjabis, although his party has repeatedly claimed that the PPP draws equal strength from all provinces. It is indeed a shrewd move and in case Prime Minister Gilani is convicted by the Supreme Court for contempt of court, it would serve as a powerful tool in the PPP's hand to drive home the point that it has never been accepted by the Punjab-dominated establishment.