Like her father, Benazir Bhutto is incapable of appreciating a higher intellect. She acts like a threatened immature teenager when confronted with someone from within the PPP ranks who can challenge her with ideas or her popularity. The way she speaks of Barrister Aitzaz Ahsan, PPP’s greatest leader and the hero of the CJP saga, is indicative of a deep seated inferiority complex that is Cleopetra’s nose for Pakistani politics. Aitzaz is not alone. Leader of the Opposition in the Senate, the eloquent Raza Rabbani is another victim of this mentality. He was not even taken into confidence about the deal between Benazir and Musharraf.

When J A Rahim and Mubashir Hassan convinced Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, a young charismatic feudal from Sindh, to form a new party with a vision of a progressive and democratic Pakistan, they probably did not have a clue that one day PPP would be ruled by Zulfikar Ali Bhutto and his family members like a personal Gestapo. J A Rahim, who was later beaten up, humiliated and jailed by Bhutto for criticizing him, was the real ideologue behind the Pakistan People’s Party. He wrote the original manifesto which committed Pakistan People’s Party to strongly left liberal platform. “Islamic Socialism” a phrase first used by Jinnah in one of his speeches was adopted as the central creed of the party. Islamic Socialism became the rallying cry of left liberal elements of Pakistan. PPP was organized around the slogan “Islam is our religion, democracy is our polity, socialism is our economy and all power to the people”. It promised in its founding document the fulfillment of the ideal of Pakistan that had led to its creation- a just and egalitarian society where everyone had equal rights.

Idealist Pakistanis – many of whom had participated in the Pakistan movement- joined up the party in large numbers imagining PPP to be finally the party that would pick up from Jinnah had left off. Here was a truly national party organized around on a platform of social justice and equality. Sadly the PPP went down the familiar path of all such parties. Just like the Ba’ath Party forgot its founder Michel Aflaq and was converted into two very similar cults i.e. Saddam Hussain’s and Hafez Al Assad’s cults, PPP forgot its noble objectives and became committed to the ideology of “Bhuttoism”. If one was to put a finger on it, Bhuttoism was crass blue blooded feudalism and a medievalist approach to power politics. Bhutto was notorious for settling old scores- sometimes generations old- with rivals- both real and imagined. In more ways than one, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto and Saddam Hussain shared a common world view and sadly a common fate.

If one was to compare Bhutto dynasty – the most apt comparison will be with the Nehru-Gandhi dynasty. Like Nehru, Bhutto was also the scion of British-pampered aristocracy and like him he too was educated abroad. Like Nehru, Bhutto to claimed to be man of the left and like Nehru, Bhutto trained his daughter to succeed him politically. Like Nehru, Bhutto was more concerned with foreign affairs and aspired to be the leader of the third world. There was one major difference though: Nehru seemed- despite all his flaws- committed to the left ideology that he adopted, whereas Bhutto’s commitment to the left was at best wavering. Furthermore, unlike the Bhuttos who were intertwined with the PPP from the beginning, Congress pre-dated the Nehru-Gandhi dynasty’s ascendancy. Some of its most famous leaders were not from the dynasty. People like Dadabhoy Naoroji, Gokhale, Tilak, Jinnah, Patel and Mohandas Gandhi (no blood relation to Nehru-Gandhi dynasty) were all famous leaders who had helped build the Congress Party. This gave Congress Party a structure ground up which balances out the ruling dynasty and helps given party members some individual freedom. PPP unfortunately has no such structure and Bhutto family is all powerful.

However Zulfikar Ali Bhutto was crucial to the new party. As the only popular ex-member of the regime, Bhutto had the charisma and his stature was given a boost by his actions subsequent to the 1965 war, where the public perception was that Ayub Khan had squandered a terrific victory due to cowardice. The events that led to the separation of East Pakistan and Pakistan’s humiliation are well known and need not be discussed in this article. It may be added though that at least according Rafi Raza – a close confidante- Yahya Khan and the regime actively helped PPP to win the seats it did in West Pakistan as a counter to the Awami League- NAP alliance that threatened the civil-military bureaucracy that had ruled the roost till then. Thus PPP’s first victory in 1970 is clouded in some controversy which has been ignored. The most poignant event in PPP’s history however was the 1977 coup and the politically motivated judicial murder of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto which forever stamped Bhutto’s martyrdom at the heart of PPP. For almost three decades now we have seen Bhutto family make a mockery of the PPP and the ideals on which it was founded. No doubt the Bhutto cult has sustained PPP but then it has also dwarfed it.

With Murtaza Bhutto murdered and Benazir Bhutto in exile, the PPP leadership has had an opportunity to at least try and outgrow the cult of Bhutto. One thing is for sure. In the last 5 years, PPP in the assembly at least has emerged as a strong force against obscurantism. Without a Bhutto in their midst, the second tier has gotten prominence like never before. While the party is still dominated by Bhutto loyalists and the feudal camp, educated people like Sherry Rahman and Fauzia Wahab are speaking out without making any real reference to the cult of Bhutto. Certainly for a lot of new comers in the PPP, the central plank is not Bhutto but rather the promise of a liberal polity. We hear less of the Pan-Islamist rhetoric, especially the praises of the 1974’s Islamic Summit Conference, the 1974 Ahmaddiya amendment, the introduction of Friday as the weekly holiday and banning of liquor as major achievements of the PPP. Instead a socially liberal vision seems to be autonomously emerging from the party itself. The party now once again attracts the leftist intellectual, the constitutional lawyer and the independent minded journalist – all of whom had been alienated by Zulfikar Ali Bhutto and his daughter.

Once again the “PPP” Bar room at the Lahore High Court is at the venue of heated debates between Trotskyites and Stalinists. Once again you have declared Marxists like Ch. Manzoor not only in the party but as elected MNAs. These new recruits do not admire Bhutto blindly. They are alive to his flaws and mistakes and repeatedly caution Benazir Bhutto against committing them again. The Pakistan People’s Party seems well on its way to bury the ghost of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto. Regardless of whether there is a deal between Benazir Bhutto and Musharraf or not, the wheel of change has begun to move. In fact one thing seems quite certain: Benazir Bhutto would be the last of the Bhuttos to lord over the PPP. A strong and vibrant democratic PPP will be the best guarantee of a democratic Pakistan.