Overhaul in the making: Bilawal Bhutto hopes to induct fresh blood into PPP

The Express Tribune

The young leadership of Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) is looking for a massive overhaul of the party by inducting into its ranks younger and dynamic faces that can actively engage the public through social and conventional media.

Without proper organisation for a long time, the PPP is now looking for fresh blood to help its young patron-in-chief Bilawal Bhutto Zardari in steering the party following its humiliating defeat in the last year’s general elections.

Bilawal, 25, who inherited the PPP from his mother Benazir Bhutto and maternal grandfather Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, is himself very active on social media and wants to reorganise all the wings of the party – especially its students’ wing, Peoples Students Federation(PSF) – by creating parallel youth wings at the union council level, according to activists close to the PPP chief.

The party’s reorganisation process, though long overdue, suffered a blow due to famine in Tharparkar district of Sindh. The disaster in the province ruled by the PPP left the party red-faced and tarnished its image further. “The visit of Bilawal to Punjab to reorganise the party was due in March. But it is delayed due to security reasons and the situation in Thar,” an old PPP member told The Express Tribune. Since the party was voted out of power in the centre and all the provinces except Sindh, the party leaders have been giving different dates for the party’s re-organisation. However, this time, the party is serious in doing so, claimed the PPP central leaders.

Bilawal was declared chairman of the party though a purported will, after assassination of his mother in 2007, but his father former President Asif Ali Zardari still calls the shots, analysts believe. The party’s reorganisation process has already kicked off, claimed Naveed Chaudhry a veteran PPP leader from Lahore. He said the first meeting in this regard was held last week in Dubai. Bilawal took recommendations from the party’s leaders and those who could not go to Dubai were taken live on Skype, he added. “A few more meetings will be held before the plans will get a final shape,” he added.

Qamar Zaman Kaira, former information minister and information secretary of the party, said though he could not give precise dates when the party’s reorganisation would be completed the process had already kicked off. “Security issues are the main reason for postponement of Bilawal’s visit to Islamabad,” he said, adding that Bilawal wanted to focus more on youth in party’s proposed new bodies.

Contrary to Bilawal’s own point of opinion to induct maximum fresh blood at all levels, the PPP senior leaders have recommended him to include a mix of youth and experienced at the central and provincial levels while at the lower level party should focus maximum on fresh blood.

Peoples Students Federation According to Faisal Sakhi Butt, who contested but lost a National Assembly seat from Islamabad, Bilawal wants to reorganise the PSF, which, he said, was once very dynamic on campuses throughout the country. Butt said before announcing new bodies of the PSF, Bilawal wants to hold interactive sessions with students of colleges and universities. “We are planning his interaction with students when he will be in Lahore. We are also planning his visit to Islamabad for the same purpose,” he said.

In Lahore, he would be meeting students from the central and southern belt of Punjab, while in Islamabad he would meet the students of colleges and universities from Northern Punjab, Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) and other adjoining areas, Butt said. He claimed that the process would be completed by the mid year before the new PSF bodies are in place.