Priming a prime minister

Many expected the post to go to the old party loyalist, the Makhdoom from Hala. The feudal mindset that the PPP is notorious for has thwarted the will of the people from prevailing. Zardari’s procrastination over Fahim’s nomination displays just that.

Makhdoom belongs to an old PPP loyalist family, the Syeds of Sindh, which endured immense pressure to defect from Gen Zia-ul Haq in the aftermath of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto’s overthrow in 1977. Consequently the family became the civil-military establishment’s bete noire in later years. Their trials have been many and the Bhuttos have been wary of them. The reason: who’s the bigger feudal?

Fahim’s father, Talibul Maula, as the Makhdoom, was a man of considerable following. Though among the founding members of the PPP in 1967, the elder, late Makhdoom was required to submit completely to Z.A. Bhutto’s will and whims to the point of humiliation. An uneasy relationship followed where the Makhdoom feared for his life if he quit the PPP and stuck around against his own judgment. After Bhutto’s overthrow, however, the tradition of feudal self-respect demanded that the Makhdoom not leave the party at a critical juncture and be seen as siding with non-Sindhis against his own fellow Sindhi.

Fahim followed in the footsteps of his father; so did Benazir. The on-again, off-again relationship continued. When a non-Sindhi establishment was busy castigating Benazir Bhutto and spouse Zardari, the Makhdoom threw his lot in with the Bhuttos; privately the differences between them kept simmering. At Benazir’s funeral Zardari said Fahim would be the party’s candidate for PM, but retracted soon thereafter.

Shah Mahmood Qureshi, another Makhdoom from the feudal, southern Punjab, was tipped as a possible alternative, but one whose family’s loyalty to the party remains suspect; his father had defected and become Zia’s governor of Punjab. Yousuf Raza Gilani, another southern Punjab landlord and the former PPP speaker of the National Assembly, is another name that has been considered. Next comes Chaudhri Ahmed Mukhtar whose claim to fame is that he defeated the PML-Q kingpin Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain in his hometown of Gujrat in central Punjab with a huge margin.

It was said that for Zardari anointing a leader from Punjab would be better. The party did not do too well in the most influential province; a Punjabi PM will help strengthen the PPP there; replacing a Punjabi prime minister, should Zardari decide to contest a by-election and present himself as a PM, would be easier than replacing a fellow Sindhi. But the feudal thinking informing the PPP decision-making defies all such logic. Allegiance and personal loyalty to the top leader count more than an aspirant’s democratic credentials, political record or loyalty to the party.

President Farooq Leghari, a diehard PPP loyalist, but someone who eventually sacked the second Benazir Bhutto government in 1995 after he was continuously humiliated by her, lingers in the Bhutto memory as a shadow. Zardari will be wary of both Qureshi and Yousuf Raza Gilani in case they are offered the premiership, because their backgrounds are so similar to Leghari’s.

Then, what remains of the PPP in Punjab can be credited to the big landlords in the south of the province and not the middle class in central Punjab. Any gains made here will only go to strengthen the landlords’ own power, not Zardari’s. Nominating Ahmed Mukhtar for the premiership may be Zardari’s only hope of controlling Punjab.

But if the party has any influence on Zardari, Amin Fahim will likely emerge as the consensus candidate. A suave man in his 60s, he is not known to take extreme positions on issues, and leaves the door open for a next round. He may just be the stopgap man for the job that the party needs given its current challenges.

The writer is an editor with Dawn, Karachi.murtazarazvi@hotmail.com