Daily Times

The anecdote has been reconstituted by so many sources that it has entered the realm of political mythology. It is a story that has gained wide currency because it illustrates the deep, dark and complicated symbiosis between the father-son political leadership in more than four decades of the PPP’s political history. There have been a handful of father-son party leaderships in that exclusive club — the Sharifs, the Wali Khans of the Awami National Party, the Legharis, Jatois of the the National Peoples Party and the Chaudhrys and Elahis of the PML-Q — but perhaps none as intensely intertwined as Bilawal and Asif Zardari.
They drank from the same cup in the blood sport of electoral politics. They lived together as family. They stood shoulder to shoulder in family grief, crushing political foes and rewarding loyal foot soldiers. They cursed enemies in political battles and shared explosive tempers capable of unleashing a Niagara of profanity. They brushed back tears of joy behind podiums on stage after victory speeches. In the tempest of party politics they became so inextricably intertwined as each other’s alter ego that father and son came to resemble two sides of the same psychological coin: Bilawal as the id to Asif Zardari’s alter ego. Although Asif Ali Zardari has met with his estranged son Bilawal in Dubai to end misunderstandings between the two, the relationship between the two of them is very complicated. Bilawal and Asif Zardari are amazingly close, amazingly different and amazingly similar.
The last thing the PPP needs at this point is speculation about the differences between Asif Zardari and Bilawal Bhutto regarding how to lead the party. Ideological differences between the chairman of the PPP, Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, and his father, Asif Zardari, and their conflicting ideologies to lead the party affairs have not only deflated the morale of jiyalas (workers) but have almost divided the party into Bhutto loyalists and Zardari loyalists. A significant sign of these differences was Bilawal Bhutto’s absence from the death anniversary of his grandfather, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, the founder of the party. It is pertinent to mention here that Bilawal Bhutto was also absent on his mother’s death anniversary. The ‘official’ reason put forth by the party was unsatisfactory. Zardari said that Bilawal needs political training before he can play a major role in politics.
Senior party leaders reluctantly admit the differences between the father and the son are of a “serious” nature but are shy to say anything on record, fearing resentment from Asif Zardari. Legend has it that this will not be the first time. The Bhutto’s have a tragic history as both the sons of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto were killed in mysterious circumstances after his hanging, and Benazir was also killed in a bomb attack in 2007. PPP workers should be reminded of the power tussle between the mother and daughter when, after Zulfikar Ali Bhutto’s death, Benazir Bhutto was successful in wresting control from Nusrat Bhutto when most of the senior leadership stood with the mother. Despite having annoyed the so-called uncles, Benazir Bhutto was accepted as the legitimate leader of the party and Nusrat Bhutto was soon relegated to the background.
The PPP is now divided into two groups. Some former PPP loyalists either begged off or asked to speak off the record, fearful of drawing fire from son or father, both known for being thin-skinned and capable of holding a grudge. Bhutto’s loyalists support Bilawal and feel there is a serious leadership vacuum in the party that should be filled by Bilawal Bhutto. Talking about the difference in father-son politics they believe Bilawal wants an ideological revival of the party whereas Zardari wants to continue with the politics of hypocrisy in the name of reconciliation. While Zardari does not want Bilawal to run the party with full authority, Zardari’s loyalists think the country cannot afford the young, immature and aggressive politics of young Bilawal. Nonetheless, there is consensus among pundits that Bilawal has been groomed by the toughest teacher imaginable, who rendered his son’s constitution into tempered steel through early and prolonged exposure to the foundry of the political arena.
Some observers have suggested that the psychic pas de deux between Bilawal and Asif Zardari is a case of history repeating itself in an ancient dynamic: a son’s desperate search for a stern father’s approval. Since his father excelled at the poetry of political rhetoric, Bilawal, who understands how machines work, could make his mark grinding out the mundane aspects of leading the PPP, the prose in the father’s analogy. Bilawal has retreated to private life. It is hardly a refuge. Less than a year after the humiliating MQM debacle, the tabloids exploded with gossipy, nasty stories about the second marriage proceedings between Asif Zardari and his second wife, Tanvir Zamani. A marriage steeped in the bloodline and the merging of two political dynasties seems over.

The writer is a professor of Psychiatry and consultant Forensic Psychiatrist in the UK. He can be contacted at fawad_shifa@yahoo.com