PPP Boils Over Zardari Exile Club

Disgruntled PPP leaders say that Zardari's loyalists are manipulating the party and the government to advance their own ambitions. (Reuters Photo)

"I don’t see a long time before the [PPP] activists openly raise slogans against these so-called friends of Zardari," a senior central PPP leader told IslamOnline.net, requesting anonymity.

"Though there are no apparent symptoms of any revolt against Zardari’s policies at the moment, if he continues to ignore the senior party leaders then there won't be a long time before a split emerges within the party."

Zardari, widower of slain former premier Benazir Bhutto and her successor as PPP leader, is accused of rewarding his old friends with key posts in the PPP government of Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani.  

Most of the so-called exile-club members fled the country after being charged in scores of corruption and criminal cases against Bhutto, Zardari and loyalists in 1990s.

They returned only after charges were dropped under the controversial National Reconciliation Ordinance (NRO), issued by President Pervez Musharraf as part of a power-sharing deal with Bhutto.

Sidelined

Many PPP leaders are quietly expressing frustration that those who now sway PPP policies do not even qualify as party members.

"Except very few ones, all these [loyalists] have nothing to do with the PPP. They have never been even simple party workers," said the senior PPP leader.

Another party leader from the Punjab, the most populous province and the powerbase of the country’s politics, says even those who belonged to the PPP were infamous for corrupt practices.

"They have always earned a bad reputation to the party. They were the actual people who have damaged the party’s reputation," he told IOL.

"Now, when the party comes into power, they get all the lucrative posts."

Many are complaining that those who were key members in the party over the past years are now being sidelined.

They cite the case of the party’s senior vice chairman, Makhdoom Amin Fahim, who led the PPP from 1999 to 2007 while Bhutto was in exile.

Fahim, once the strongest candidate for the post of prime minister, has left the country to neighboring India after Zardari stopped even inviting him to attend party meetings.

Other prominent members, like PPP political secretary Naheed Khan and longtime Senator Safdar Abbassi, have been marginalized.

"How unfortunate is it that those party leaders, who have been jailed, tortured, and politically victimized for struggling against the military regime, have to wait outside Zardari House to meet him, whereas his friends have direct access to him."

Short-lived

The disgruntled PPP leaders IOL spoke to accuse the exile club of manipulating the party and the government to advance their own ambitions.

The Punjab PPP leader blames them for the failure to reinstate the supreme and high court judges sacked by Musharraf late last year.

"They don’t want deposed Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudry to come back," he believes.

"They fear that if he comes back, all the corruption and criminal cases which have been withdrawn under the NRO may be re-opened."

He believes that with the exile club drawing up the party policies, it won't be a long time before the PPP government faces a public outcry.

"They never contest elections; therefore they have no idea about people’s aspirations.

"But unfortunately, Zardari has no time to even listen to us."

The senior PPP leader cites an already growing sense of public desperation.

"The previous government, which no doubt was a dictatorial regime, took various years to become the target of media and masses," he notes.

"Our government has come into power just a couple of months ago, but Zardari’s policies have propelled the people and the media to rise against us."

Roedad Khan, an author and political analyst, agrees.

"Zardari must keep in his mind that his party will be wiped out much before the time the pro-Musharraf parties were."