HYDERABAD: After a brief lull, Dr Zulfikar Mirza has again come out with all guns blazing against none other than the Pakistan Peoples Party co-chairman whom he still insists on calling an old brother-like friend. His fresh outburst in a television interview against former president Asif Ali Zardari and what he describes as countless ‘chamchas’ (sycophants) has left many PPP office-bearers dumbfounded.

Having gone into hibernation after his August 2011 press conference against the Muttahida Qaumi Movement in the backdrop of the Lyari operation, the former home minister attacked the former president in his television interview, linking him with all ‘flourishing’ businesses ranging from agricultural land to sugar factories.

Dr Mirza now plans to leave for London and is believed to be seeking to meet PPP chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari.

Except for Hasnain Mirza, his son, neither he nor his MNA wife Dr Fahmida Mirza was available for comments on the development.

There are various theories about his latest high-decibel diatribe: the denial of a ministry to his son, posting of officers in the administration and departments not proposed by him, the PPP’s latest overtures to the MQM for induction in the government and his loosening grip over local politics. Also, he might have felt piqued over the space being increasingly given to MNA Kamal Khan Chang, who was previously backed by him, in powerful quarters within the PPP.

But a legislator and provincial office-bearer of the party does not see Dr Mirza’s outbursts against Mr Zardari as something Chang-specific.

“My hunch is that some thinking is at work — like the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf’s dharna and mounting pressure on the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz government leading to the establishment of military courts, then disclosures of the [Baldia factory fire] JIT report and the MQM position and now Dr Mirza’s slanderous remarks against none other than the party leader — to malign politicians and to take the situation to a point where people start saying that they are sick of politicians and a ‘saviour’ must come,” he said.

Influence of MNA Chang — until recently a close confidante of Dr Mirza — in Badin is one of the reasons that the situation has come to such a point.

“Yes, it was due to his [Dr Mirza’s] support that I was made general secretary of the Badin district chapter and in the backdrop of his famous August 2011 press conference I was removed and when things normalised between him and the PPP I was reinstated,” admits Mr Chang.

But he notes it with some anguish that Dr Mirza passed uncharitable remarks against his father besides issuing a damaging statement against him.

Mr Chang, who hails from Tando Allahyar’s Sanjar Chang area, became Badin district nazim after wining the 2005 local bodies elections. In the last general elections, he won the MNA seat. He feels that Dr Mirza considers his friends his servants and perhaps this mindset is making him lose his ‘friends’.

The former home minister, who had perhaps made his last public appearance in a PPP programme on Oct 18, 2014 at the formal launch of Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari’s political career in Karachi, held a ‘people’s court’ in November 2014 outside the deputy commissioner office of Badin as part of his aggressive anti-corruption drive — a position he still sticks to, saying that known corrupt people with questionable integrity are serving in Badin.

Political analyst and writer Jami Chandio says the ‘centre of power’ has moved from Dr Mirza to Mr Chang and Sindh parliamentary affairs minister Dr Sikandar Mandhro, rendering the former ineffective as well as ‘frustrated’.

“What he [Mirza] has stated is cent per cent true, but his motives are unknown. Bad governance was there from 2008 to 2013, too, but then he was sharing absolute power. Since the kind of authority he enjoyed is no more with him, this can be a pressure tactic too to regain lost ground,” Mr Chandio believes.

Dr Mirza, according to the party legislator, was considered second top leader in party hierarchy considering his closeness to Mr Zardari right from the presidency to the Sindh government. “But now his tone and tenor is greatly disturbing me and I feel that if the situation doesn’t change, then the PPP might find it hard to get along with him,” he says.

If it is all about corruption and bad governance, then the situation was not ideal in the previous PPP government either, he explains, citing that “it is confusing when you say that the party leader is your friend and the PPP is your party and still blame them in public”.

Hasnain Mirza, Dr Mirza’s barrister son, spoke to Dawn over the phone from Karachi willingly but quite cautiously.

“It is not something Badin-specific, as we have raised issues at the party forum and I’ve raised them before the chief minister on at least a dozen of occasions,” he says.

He explains that Badin despite being a minerals-rich district is considered the most backward area of the country because of problems such as bad governance (in terms of district administration), jobs and development schemes. He didn’t take any question regarding matters of land, factories, bad governance as pinpointed by his father in the televised interview.

The veteran PPP activist, however, believes that criticism of the party leadership by Dr Mirza might affect the parliamentary career of the two legislators from his family. He doesn’t rule out their resignations.

Published in Dawn, February 13th, 2015

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