The Canvas

In a time when the educated mass of Pakistan was searching for a beacon of hope and semblance from the Bhutto house of power, a new debate erupts amongst them as Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) appoint Bilawal Bhutto Zardari as the Chairperson of the party and his father, Asif Ali Zardari, husband to the late Benazir Bhutto, as co-chair.

While still very young, he is indeed quiet clueless about what is happening around him. In an added state of shock, and mourning he was denied from answering any questions at the press conference held at Nao Dero, Sindh by the Chief Executive Council (CEC) of PPP.

In his address to the press, Asif Ali Zardari claimed that he had changed the surnames of all their children to Bhutto Zardari from simply Zardari. Which is a clear indicator that this is an attempt to gain the ’sympathy vote’ that is attached to the Bhutto name. Since the hanging of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto (ZAB), to the assassination of Benazir (BB), majority of the voting mass for PPP give them vote because of the attached sympathies. Which is undeniable.

While some people justify that this is a good move to cash in the Bhutto name and use it to ‘keep the party together’, there are a lot of us who believe that this is non-democratic and there was no evident fracture in the party that needed mending. The loyalists justify this it as ‘this is what the will says,’ when no one knows when the ‘will’ was concocted. Bundled together is the element of national disintegration if the Pakistani federation, which again I believe is an exaggeration of the facts, done merely to extend the tragedy unnecessarily and get maximum political mileage out of it.

The best possible reason to this appointment by A. A. Zardari that they could give is that this is what the party workers wanted. This is what the CEC wanted, this is what the party in general wanted. And I believe they must have made the decision with a good session of brainstorming – judging and evaluating the pros and cons of the decision. I say Asif Ali Zardari made this decision as he was the one to whom the party was handed over to by the Benazir Bhutto in her ‘will’, that is if we are willing to believe that the will was not concocted.

While the winter vacations of Bilawal Bhutto Zardari turn into a political campaign for his party, I believe that there not much difference that has happened to me as a neutral voter. He is too young to stand for a National Assembly Seat (as an MNA) to even win it in the first place, he isn’t even registered for these elections. So it makes no big difference to me. What needs to be seen in the coming days is how he makes his decisions for the party, how he leads them, how he address the public and how he ultimately ‘leads’ the party and it’s workers. Of course, he would not be all alone in that seat, he will be assisted by his father and Mian Makdoom Amin Faheem on his left and right.

While the entire nation is in a state of shock and grief, I believe we should all say a little prayer for those that have departed from this world and be more rational and logical in analyzing our options as day by day we are being deprived of more and more.

God Bless Pakistan. Pakistan Zindabad.