Daily Times

Following his return to Pakistan after 18-months long self-imposed exile, former President Asif Ali Zardari has announced to contest by-election on National Assembly seat, to be vacated by his elder sister in Nawabshah. The announcement, which was touted as a surprise, came at a public meeting held to commemorate the ninth death anniversary of former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto. He told the party workers and supporters that his son, PPP chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari, would also contest a by-election on a Larkana seat, to be vacated by PPP lawmaker Ayaz Soomro, to join the lower house of parliament.

Zardari will not be a first former president to choose to contest elections to join parliament. Earlier, former president Farooq Leghari had contested and won the 2002 general elections on an NA seat. There have been numerous opinions and rumours against the potential return of Zardari to Pakistan considering the political environment in recent times.

With this announcement, Mr Zardari has silenced all the rumours and his plan to become a part of the Parliament shows that there is no going back now. Amid all the criticism and apprehensions related to the former president, this is the right decision by Mr Zardari — staying true to his party’s history of strengthening the parliament — an aspect that has been lacking in the past few years due to PTI’s street agitations as well as the government’s way of functioning with APC’s and Presidential-ordinances.

A peaceful protest is a constitutional right. But before taking to the streets, the opposition must use democratic platforms available to ask the government to address their concerns. As the next general elections approach in just over a year, PML-N is still in a shaky position with regards to the controversies it had to face over the past few years. Every party is looking to cash in on the situation. The case is same with the PPP as well.

Though he became the country’s first president to complete his constitutional term and will stand out in history as the first president to strengthen the federation and stabilized democracy, but

with the changing times, PPP will also need to move on from decades old Bhutto rhetoric and form their agenda on modern lines. The same was not able to deliver for the people the last time, and the party cannot afford to continue with it.

On the democratic front, the decision of Mr Zardari shows PPP’s commitment towards the government completing its five-year term. But there is no love lost between him and Nawaz Sharif as Zardari had severely criticised the Prime Minister on the functioning of current government.

Only time will tell whether the head of PPP is sincere in reinvigorating his party or it is just the case of political scoring amid the looming general elections. A lot will depend on the outcome of the Panama case in the Supreme Court as well as the government’s performance in ridding the country of power outages. *