Why Does PPP Want to Stay Away from Anti-establishment Narrative?

EDITOR’S DESK: Hours before the second showdown of the Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) in Karachi today, the host of the rally, Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, has warned all the participants in advance not to speak against the military general in his program. Politically, it is clear that the PPP’s approach is reconciliatory and they are not in favor of any major feud with the Establishment, while Nawaz league interested to maintain both conflict and pressure because they perhaps believe at this stage of their political career that the reconciliation could lead them to political death.

Eight months ago, when the discussion of PML N’s head Nawaz Sharif’s illness was on the rise, the party all of sudden had adopted Shahbaz’s narrative of reconciliation by putting aside Nawaz Sharif and Maryam Nawaz narrative of resistance but the relentless arrests and tough political circumstances created by Imran Khan led PTI government compelled PML-N to revert back to the previous position, where they broke the silence, abandoned the unannounced reconciliation and finally preferred to speak again. The voice this time is more clear and loud, the reflection of change from reconciliation to resistance approach can clearly be witnessed from the PPP hosted APC to Gujranwala public meeting on Friday.

However, the Gujranwala rally was hosted by the Nawaz League, where they could do whatever they wanted to do, say whatever they wanted to say, but today they are mere guests in the Karachi rally and they are not in a position to do whatever they want to do۔ The political show hosted by the PPP today will be driven the way the PPP wants it, or in other words, the way Asif Ali Zardari wants it. The PPP knows that if the Nawaz League in their political show launches its resistance movement against the Establishment, it could be detrimental to its political ambitions, as the PPP clearly wants to keep the PDM anti-Imran. PPP does not want to put the shackles of Nawaz League around her neck by making it an anti-establishment in any way.

Political pundits believe that the PPP has calculated through its meticulous political mathematics that it can never form a government in the federation on the basis of the seats won from Sindh. It is clear that they have to won seats from all four provinces specially from Punjab if they want to make Government in center, which is nearly impossible in current circumstance. The Zardari-led PPP can maintain Sindh as its stronghold through electoral manipulation, but they do not have the acceptance in the Punjab province, on the basis of seats from Sindh or few from southern Punjab, they can not form their own government with a simple majority. PPP leadership understands that they can not get a central position in the power corridors without the blessings of the Establishment.

PPP knows that after Imran Khan’s departure from the government, the Establishment will not give any preference to the Nawaz League, therefore, it will be a rare opportunity for them to come to power. They also know that angry PTI electables from Punjab may turn to them and they can lead the next setup. That’s the reason, they do not want such a confrontation with the Establishment on the basis of which they should be declared as dirty eggs like PML-N. That’s why Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, while stating the code of conduct of the meeting hosted by PPP, has conveyed a clear message to the rest of the participants to limit it to the anti-Imran narrative only.

Secondly, there are a lot of cases against PPP leaders, including Asif Ali Zardari and his sister, and they are interested to get rid of them as soon as possible and everyone knows today that they can not be eliminated with the anti-establishment approach.

There is also the case of the Sindh government, whose 13-year continuous worse governance has destroyed Sindh. The unprecedented corruption has weakened party’s historical pro people and pro democracy stance. People have been demanding that center should act against the completely ineffective Sindh government and impose the governor rule but pundits believe that it is just a threat to PPP leadership to keep them away from resistance approach.

It is true that the fear of possible Governor Raj or the federal government’s direct control of provincial affairs can only be avoided through pro establishment policies.

PPP wanted to achieve various targets through its political clever approach and today’s code of conduct is directly linked to it. They want to portray to be better alternative of Imran’s PTI but not the anti establishment political force.

It is also a strange course of history that the party which was being  considered anti-establishment forty decades ago is now being seen politically closer to the establishment and its proponents are dragging it further, while the so-called anti-establishment party which was very close to actual power center few decades ago has adopted the way of confrontation and being considered as anti establishment today.

By the way, Bilawal Bhutto Zardari has completely forgotten that his mother became “Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto” because of anti-establishment speeches and approach and today Nawaz Sharif is also working to wash away his political sins under the same approach.