Challenging the PPP in Sindh

The PTI was dealt a huge political blow when Naz Baloch left the party and joined the PPP. After Senator Saeed Ghani’s victory in the PS-114 by-polls in Karachi, the PPP has bounced back in the province. The party’s leadership has gained fresh momentum, raising hopes that the PPP could win the next elections.

Ismael Rahu, the president of the PML-N in Sindh, recently resigned and joined the PPP. Ismael Rahu remained associated with the PML-N for the past 22 years. Rahu represented a secular and progressive legacy. He is the son of the peasant leader Fazil Rahu who was assassinated in the 1980s.

Fazil Rahu enjoyed massive support in his region. Ismael contested two elections on the ticket of the party that his father had associated with: the ANP. Those were the days when Asif Zardari’s father Hakim Ali Zardari was also one of the key leaders of the ANP in Sindh. Ismael lost both elections.

When the PPP’s first government was dismissed by the then president Ghulam Ishaq Khan, former PPP stalwart Jam Sadiq was brought in to use all possible means to deprive the PPP of its majority in Sindh Assembly. Ismael Rahu joined Jam Sadiq Ali’s minority government in coalition with the MQM. Jam Sadiq had only one seat in Sindh Assembly. But with the support of the PML-N, the PML-F and, above all, the establishment, he was able to form a government in Sindh.

Ismael Rahu became part of ‘power politics’, leaving the ‘politics of ideals and class struggle’ for political opportunism. This marked the end of progressive politics for his family. Badin, his home district, was a stronghold of the PPP. Ismael never won an election again on the PML-N ticket until last year when Zulfiqar Mirza revolted against the PPP and threw his weight behind him.

Ismael was unhappy with the PML-N as its leaders recently left the party and joined the PPP – including Abdul Hakeem Baloch, their only elected MNA from Karachi. Both Ismael and Abdul Hakeem Baloch came up with same complaints: that the party has no interest in Sindh’s affairs and not a single full-fledged ministry was given to any party leader from Sindh, which is true.

Other political stalwarts hailing from Sindh had already distanced themselves and eventually left the party. These included Sindhi nationalist Mumtaz Ali Bhutto, who had actually merged the Sindh National Front (SNF) into the PML-N. Ideologically, there was no common ground between Mumtaz Bhutto’s SNF, which called for a confederation in Pakistan and a centrist PML-N. But Mumtaz Bhutto had realised that he alone could not defeat the PPP.

Nawaz Sharif is now only left with three electables in Sindh – the Shirazi family in Thatta, former chief minister Arbab Rahim in Tharparkar and the Jatoi family in Naushahro Feroze. All three lost badly in the last local government elections, and many of their local supporters have already left them and joined the PPP.

Ghulam Murtaza Jatoi, the Jatoi family leader, is under pressure from within his family to join the PPP as his cousin Aqib Khan Jatoi is said to be in talks with the PPP. In the recent by-elections, the Jatois could not field even a single candidate on the provincial assembly seat vacated by their family member in Moro – a seat they had not lost since the 1990s. This shows their weakening political power in the traditional home constituency. Jatois have been winning elections since Sindh’s partition from the Bombay Presidency.

It won’t surprise many if they too end up joining the PPP. Locals believe that Asif Ali Zardari is very keen to see them join the party under him. After all, they were the ones who defeated him in past elections and Asif does not forget the past.

Nawaz Sharif has showed no interest in visiting Sindh and announcing a development package for the province over the last four years. The federal planning and development ministry has not come up with any development plan for Sindh whatsoever, except the Karachi-Hyderabad motorway – which is seen as part of CPEC but is funded by the federal government.

It was a shock to many private investors in the Nooriabad wind power corridor that federal government had not even put up the transmission infrastructure to lift the power from their stations and connect it with the national grid station even though the plants were ready to produce power.

Though neighbouring districts still face loadshedding, Wapda is not interested in providing more power to the districts in Sindh. The reason they give is that not enough revenue is generated from these districts and there is no point to provide more electricity amid power theft and line losses. The fear is that even if there is additional electricity in national grid, the people of many districts in Sindh won’t receive power because of the inefficiencies in Wapda and the distribution companies and corruption.

Despite being in power for four years, Abid Sher Ali and his team have failed to address these gaps. Thus the PML-N does not stand a chance to put up a political fight against the PPP in Sindh. The only force that people were hoping to rally behind was the PTI. With the defection of Naz Baloch, the PTI has been wounded in Sindh.

The Sindhi nationalists are in disarray. Two parties that are likely to contest elections – the Qaumi Awami Tehreek (QAT) led by Ayaz Latif Palijo and the Sindh United Party (SUP) led by Jalal Shah – are not seen together in any alliance. The QAT has been part of a grand alliance led by Pir Pagara and the other failed political elite do not offer any hope and lack popular support among Sindhi voters.

It is ironic that there are thousands of political activists in the core of Sindhi society who are outside the PPP. But when it comes to an electoral alliance against the PPP, they lack the will and determination to form an alliance. The most popular lower middle class party is the JSQM, which has never been interested in elections. Instead, it has harboured contempt for federal democracy for the past four decades. Critics of the PPP fear that the party will have a walk over in the upcoming elections.

Despite the cries of bad governance and stories of corruption, the PPP has been able to bring more electables into the party than the number of defections it has faced in Sindh. Thousands of nationalist and progressive workers in Sindh do not stand with the PPP. But a leadership that can capitalise on their frustration and anger is missing. As a result, a credible alternative in elections does not seem to be coming forward. Sindh continues to be a fiefdom of elitist politics.

Email: mush.rajpar@gmail.com

Twitter: @MushRajpar