Pakistan - The new PPP

Dr Asim Hussain’s statements upon his return to Pakistan speak volumes for the Peoples Party’s new political position.

The under-trial PPP leader had gone to London after the Apex court ordered removal of his name from the ECL. On arrival at Karachi airport on Friday, Asim warned former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif against criticising the establishment.

Not too long ago, PPP co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari had to go on self-exile following a fiery speech he delivered in 2015. Zardari had referred to Dr Asim’s case as an example of political victimisation of the PPP. But after returning to the country last year, the PPP co-chairman went into the appeasement mode.

Ever since the Panama Papers scandal broke out and the matter went to the Supreme Court, the PPP has refrained from standing up with the ruling party, the way it did in 2014 at the time of PTI and PAT dharnas in Islamabad. Perhaps, this is because the PPP has realised that the politics of reconciliation was not working — especially in Punjab.

PPP chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari often mentions that the party is in a revival phase and he refers to the party as ‘new PPP’. It turns out that the new PPP isn’t too new after all. The party has been unable to come up with any concrete policy prescriptions for the country’s numerous problems. It has yet to offer any ground-breaking solutions to issues like extremism, macroeconomic woes and socio-economic development needs.

It seems that the PPP has started to think that reviving the party is only possible if the leadership refrains from angering the powers-that-be, come what may. Whether or not this new strategy will help the party regain its lost ground in Punjab remains to be seen.

A more certain path to revival would have been improvement of the performance of the party’s government in Sindh province. In the past nine years, the provincial government’s performance has remained disappointing to say the least. Most importantly, if PPP improves itself on that front, it won’t need to compromise on its ideological principles to gain political mileage.