will the reak oakistan people's party please stand up

Will The Real Pakistan People's Party Please Stand Up?

The legendary political commentator Khalid Hasan wrote last week in the Daily Times about the daughter of the east’s insistence to be referred to by her party workers only as ‘Mohtarma’ if they wish to keep her on side. A question arises as to why the name ‘ Benazir’ meaning incomparable causes so much irk for she is many things but certainly incomparable!

That said I wonder if the ghost of Z A Bhutto still haunts her at night and it is this linkage that she seeks to find escape from. Irrespective of the consequences from the Lady of Larkana I will commit this heinous blasphemy and call her Benazir Bhutto and expect payback forthwith. Like scrooge who sought escape from ghosts of Christmases past it seems the daughter of the east is seeking a similar escape from ghosts of the military past via her impending deal with the living ghost of General Musharraf.

The deal comes as no surprise thanks to expert ball by ball running commentary given by the Sheikh of Pindi nonetheless its ramifications will reverberate for a long time in Pakistan and beyond. The deal must and will make or break the PPP as such a deal stinks off the stench of the most unholy of alliances and flies in the face of Benazir Bhutto’s own promise in her interview to The Sunday Times that General Musharraf has "lost his moral authority. His popularity rates are down and it would be very unpopular if we saved him. We would lose votes by being associated with him". So why save him and purposefully sail together on the Titanic? Could it be that like Mick Jagger perhaps Mohtarma has developed some sympathy for the devil too.

Even before the deal has become public forget the ink going dry yet; the effervescent Sher of Mianwali has rushed to reassure us all unashamedly saying that ‘the constitution may be amended for BB’. So let us all rejoice for this Aunty Shamim of a constitution is to have yet more bedfellows. John Ciardi once said that ‘the constitution gives every American the inalienable right to make a damn fool of himself’, however such a prize has yet to bear fruit in luckless Pakistan. Instead Pakistan has her own desi molotav cocktail of a constitution; a petrol bomb of sorts taking aim not at enemy positions as was the case for our Russian friends but at Pakistan itself. Instead of our constitution allowing Pakistanis the freedom to be fools as Ciardi championed instead it is our own constitution that has been made the fool time and time again by military and civilian governments alike.

The 1973 constitution of Z A Bhutto is clearly now defunct and dead and the one on show is certainly a poor double bringing to the nations joy LFO after LFO and amendments galore. That said the 1973 constitution has at least been one fertile mother giving birth to many bastards in the shape of constitutional amendments forever acting as the mother of many and the father of none. For decades now the Pakistani masses have endured this ignominy until the 9th of March when the nation rose in all her glory from her comatose state to say enough was enough. The lawyers movement has been the one hope for the Pakistani masses amidst the promise of a new dawn after the Supreme Court’s decision to reinstate the Chief Justice.

The bazaars and chowks are awash with hope at the promise of a better tomorrow as they see the judiciary is now free to do its work and hope that it will act as a counterweight to the lust of power of our military generals. The masses believe rightly in my opinion that if all the political parties were to work together to get rid of the current military rule we will usher in a golden era for our jinxed nation. That is not to say it will all be hunky-dory the day after or even years after, but in truth it can’t get much worse. So I beg to ask the question why then is the nation’s largest political party selling out to the military under the guise of some kind of mushy Musharraf version of guided democracy.

True supporters of the PPP must be thinking of jumping ship, what will become of promises given by Aitzaz Ahsan, Raza Rabbani, Pervez Ashraf and the like to fight military rule or have they sold their souls to the devil too? Will they do us a great deed and stand up to the Lady or Larkana and remind her that the PPP is not the party of Bhutto nor her personal fiefdom; it is and should always be the party of the people. The three P’s represent its covenant with the people namely it is owned by Pakistan only. Secondly it is the party of the People and lastly it is a Party not a one lady show. So in Eminem-style will the real Pakistan People’s Party please stand up and save this endangered species before it is too late.

Wasim Arif - 29th July 2007, 21.44 PK Time