South Punjab or Seraiki wasaib?

When PPP Chairperson Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari concluded his speech at his party’s rally in Multan on December 15 that ‘Ghinsoon, ghinsoon, sooba ghinsoon’ (we’ll grab the province, come what may), the crowd went frenzy. 

But not some Seraiki nationalists.

Pakistan Seraiki Party president Dr Nukhbah Langah said it was just an election stunt and a Seraiki vote securing strategy.

“The PPP did not change the name of their party unit of Seraiki wasaib,” she said referring to the PPP South Punjab chapter.  

She said Asif Zardari promised a Seraiki bank during his presidentship and that was not established.
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On the national language bill in the Senate, the PPP did not include Seraiki in it.

“Three cheers for the PPP for speaking for us but why the party has shied away from calling it a Seraiki sooba,” questioned Zahoor Dhareeja, the president of Saraikistan Qaumi Council Pakistan. He said speakers after speakers at the massive rally kept calling our wasaib as south Punjab, which was factually incorrect. “We lay our claim from Bahawalpur to Khushab districts, and Khushab, Mianwali, and Dera Ismail Khan, all Seraiki speaking districts, do not fall in south part of Punjab,” he explained. He sees Seraiki as his identity and wonders when the PPP gave identity to Pashtuns by renaming their province as Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, why not the similar approach for the Seraiki belt.

Seraiki nationalists had pinned great hopes from the PPP rally and had done spadework to convince the party to raise the slogan of the province for the Seraiki belt.

When he landed in Multan, huge billboards and banners inscribed with a separate province demands welcomed Mr Bhutto-Zardari. Such columns of banner had popped up in every nook and cranny of the Multan city days ahead of the rally. Local newspapers published front-page ads and special supplements on behalf of Saraikistan Democratic Party General Secretary Asif Khan.

But all the publicity material missed the word ‘Seraiki’.

Asif Khan acknowledged there were some concerns in the PPP over raising the slogan of the Seraiki province.

He, however, called it a milestone for the nationalists that the PPP chairperson wore a Seraiki ajrak, called Seraiki the language of four provinces and promised to raise a new province for the area.

“Let us not make the name a big issue at this stage,” he says.

Rana Ibrar Khalid, a journalist with a deep interest in Seraiki issues, offers an explanation. He says when a commission for a separate province was formed by the Zardari government in 2011 under Senator Farhatullah Babar, then the powerful circles had warned the PPP not to use the word ‘Seraiki’ in the province issue. He said though it was undesirable, the PPP be forgiven for the reason that it had made the province issue a national issue, which was earlier confined to drawing room and seminar discussions.

“When the PPP presented a bill for the Seraiki area province in the Senate, Nawaz Sharif would instigate the people of Bahawalpur to demand the revival of their defunct state, not a province,” he said, adding that Baloch, Sindhi, and Pashtun nationalists supported the Seraiki province whereas some elements in Punjab had an issue with ‘Seraiki’ province. 

Ijazur Rehman, Pakistan Seraiki Party activist, says the PPP needs to understand public’s sentiments. “The crowd went mad when Javed Siddiqui anchored the rally proceeding in Seraiki, when Yousuf Gilani and Asif Zardari spoke in Seraiki and when Javed Multani sang a song in Seraiki,” he said.

Rana Fraz Noon, the Sarakistan Democratic Party head, says PPP’s promise would force other parties to make the province their part of the manifesto. 

The romance called PPP

Founded by charismatic Zulfikar Ali Bhutto on November 30, 1967, till its golden jubilee celebrations on November 30, 2017, under Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari, the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) has seen 50 years of its existence. These 50 years have always been full of struggle, turmoil, betrayal, court trials, jail terms, flogging, vote triumphs, exiles, murders, corruption charges, media trials, people’s confidence, people’s lack of trust and so on. The PPP is a cult; for many people, it is in their blood, while so many simply cannot put it up with. That is what the PPP has been throughout the history. 

The birth of the PPP came without any planning. ZA Bhutto resigned from the Ayub cabinet in 1967 and with his like-minded friends, conceived the party in Lahore. The party fought and won a landslide victory in the 1970 elections. The party gave voice to the voiceless, power to the powerless and a culture of democracy to the democracy-less people and country. The party restructured the remaining part of the country after the devastating 1971 war which saw the breakup of Pakistan. The party gave the country a constitution which has been a binding factor in the ensuing years. The party established several national assets like the Pakistan State Oil, nuclear programme, the National Engineering Services of Pakistan, over 40 universities, local bodies system, and so on.  

The party nationalised, and rightly nationalised, several industries and educational institutions. They all were working fine until the martial law boots played havoc with them and destroyed them. The 1977 martial law, by army dictator Gen Ziaul Haq, started a period of troubles, turmoil, and terror for the PPP. Bhutto kissed the gallows without budging from his stance of people’s supremacy. His followers stood firm and kissed the gallows and flogging centres. They wrote the history of heroism with their blood. 

Bhutto’s young daughter – Benazir Bhutto – picked the party mission where it was left by her father. Enduing jails, trials, and troubles, she kept on moving ahead until 1988 when the military dictator was demolished in an air crash and the people spoke in favour of the PPP in the elections. Ensuing years saw the toppling of the PPP governments and its successful comebacks until 1999 when the army picked their fallen guns and aimed at the civilian government. The PPP with its archrival PML-N waged a war for the restoration of democracy. Then came 2007 and the daughter of Bhutto returned home after an eight-year exile, but only to be greeted with suicide bombers on her arrival in Karachi. She survived one attempt. She was not lucky in Rawalpindi on December 27, 2007, and left the whole world mourning and her followers in a deep shock. Her spouse Asif Ali Zardari took her mission forward. Since Benazir’s departure, the party has been in popularity crises, thanks to the media trial, and establishment ploys and the rising tide of extremism and terrorism in the country.  

Thinking of all the upheavals the party has experienced and endured them, it is a miracle that the party is still alive, though not as active and popular as it used to be till 2007, to celebrate its golden jubilee.

The party is a national asset and needs to be valued by the people of Pakistan. It is hoped that Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari will make the party as per the aspiration of the public and traditional democratic spirits.

Political parties are national assets and the PPP is the most valued among them.

NA-4 bye-polls: the picture of forthcoming general elections

The bye-election for NA-4 in Peshawar was being dubbed a litmus test for the ruling Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI). 

The party, however, rose to the occasion, defeating campaigns on social media and by some TV talk show hosts that the ruling party had lost its popularity in the province. Had it lost the election, its impact would have felt across the country. It seems party chief Imran Khan’s ceaseless campaign against corruption is still attracting the masses.

The seat fell vacant after the death of PTI dissent MNA Gulzar Khan. The PTI fielded Arbab Amir Ayub to face Pakistan Muslim League-N’s (PML-N’s) Nasir Khan Musazai, Awami National Party’s (ANP’s) Khushdil Khan and Pakistan People’s Party’s (PPP) Asad Gulzar.

Bye-elections are mostly manipulated by incumbent provincial government. 

PTI’s stepped-up efforts to challenge the PML-N in its stronghold Lahore bye-elections (NA-122 and NA-120) gave a chance to the PML-N to give the PTI sleepless nights in its Khyber Pakhtunkhwa constituency (NA-4). Amid the reports of huge funds doled out by both the federal government and the provincial government, the media built a momentum for the Election Day. Ahead of the polling day, the PML-N and the PTI gathered bad press for their leaders’ cases. Even when the polling was in process, PTI chief Imran Khan hit the headlines for tendering an apology to the chief election commissioner. Side by side, the PML-N leader, disgracefully ousted Nawaz Sharif, was being declared an absconder and arrest warrant issued. These breaking news stories, however, deterred both parties’ supporters least from going ahead with their plans to poll votes for their candidates.      

Other than the win of the PTI candidate, the result sheet offers the picture of the emerging electoral scene.

The ANP is striking back slowly, steadily, and with a little more effort, it can regain its lost grounds. In the face of two governments candidates, its candidate stood second with a convincing 24,000 plus votes; that is quite an achievement. PML-N’s Musazai added a few thousand votes to its earlier 2013 poll record. That would not have happened, had its party not armed him with development funds. He had the consistent backing of energetic Amir Muqam and other leaders in Islamabad.

The PPP had a face-saving day with 13,000 plus votes. After its worst drubbing in NA-120 bye-elections, the party was looking to the result card with a hushed, fearful silence. The party had also secured 12,000 votes in the 2013 elections. A well-attended party rally, addressed by fearless Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari, convinced the vote bank to give the party another chance.

The Labaik Party is gaining strong footing in electoral activities. First, it made inroads to elections in NA-120 bye-election, where it beat Milli Muslim League and the PPP to grab the third place. This time, its little-known candidate defeated the Jamaat-i-Islami candidate to reach the fifth place. The chorus of extremism, and religious discourse, by the PML-N, JI, PTI and other right-wing parties, is going to eat up their own vote. Let them face the reality.

The general elections are only a few months away. Political parties have not much time at disposal to make big changes to their vote tally. The cases of the Sharif family, Imran Khan and Jehangir Tareen and some PPP leaders will impact the parties’ seats.

And we are proud to see these historical moments.