BADIN: When the late Zulfikar Ali Bhutto decided to contest for National Assembly seats in 1970 after quitting Gen Ayub’s cabinet, he chose Badin (then NW-121) besides Larkana and Thatta from where he filed nomination papers, winning them easily. Nobody could have known that one day, Bhutto’s PPP would face a shocking electoral embarrassment in its fort of Badin, and that too at the hands of his erstwhile supporter, Dr Zulfikar Mirza.

The contest has generated a lot of interest ever since Mirza set the tone for an anti-Zardari narrative in the mainstream media, coining the term ‘Zardari League’ — a reference to Chaudhry Shujaat’s PML-Q, created by Gen Pervez Musharraf — for the PPP, which is headed by his onetime school friend, Asif Ali Zardari, as co-chairman. Mirza’s group romped home with 25 seats, trouncing the PPP he once belonged to.

“Friendship doesn’t exist any more. The doors [for reconciliation with Zardari] are closed now. Even Bilawal toes his father’s line,” he tells me confidently at his farmhouse ‘Fehmida’s nest’, named after his wife and MNA, Dr Fehmida Mirza.

He is taking half an hour to chat with me about his success in the Nov 19 local government polls. Hundreds of jubilant supporters wait anxiously to felicitate him on his success.

“I voted for Mirza as they [the PPP] all are traitors. Had they not been traitors, they would have won at least one seat in Badin city,” says the elderly Hassan Khaskheli, a roadside vendor.

“Mirza did so many things for us, like getting development work and jobs for the youth,” interrupts Rashid Kashmiri, an employee of the meteorological department. He remains unimpressed by the fact that such jobs are in fact provided by the government. “So what! For the people, it is Mirza who got them jobs,” he asserts.

“Mirza’s candidates will win even the general elections in Badin,” declares Wasim Masih.

Mirza’s victory is made all the more impressive by his somewhat unceremonious exit from the PPP, which marked the end of his 40-year personal and political association with Zardari and the PPP.

“We didn’t have space for countless supporters in this large house,” says his cousin, Sohail Mirza, who lost his district council seat, guiding me to the drawing room where wedding-day images of Mirza’s friend Zardari and Benazir Bhutto are woven on a fancy carpet hung on the wall.

Didn’t you feel reluctance in contesting against a party that gave you a name in politics, I ask him. “No. The PPP is a bunch of exploiters now. I can look towards rejoining the PPP if Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari dethrones his father,” he says. He hints at forming his own Sindh-based party or inclining towards the PML-F whose politics focus on Sindh.

“I can’t be comfortable with ifs and buts on Sindh’s issues and the question of joining the PTI simply doesn’t arise. We’ll go with some group temporarily in the local councils if the legal provisions so require. Or we’ll get our group registered,” he muses.

Some 15 kilometres from the farmhouse, MNAs Nafeesa Shah and Kamal Khan Chang along with newcomers in the PPP, Ali Bux Shah and his spouse Yasmin Shah, explain how the PPP lost a fair number of seats in its stronghold, finding fault with the Election Commission of Pakistan’s polling scheme. “Let there be re-poll in the 12 union councils where 22 polling stations were abruptly changed,” Nafeesa tells a press conference.

But Dr Fehmida rejects the point, saying that 112 polling stations in her constituency were changed from the original locations or shifted to rival candidates’ villages or elsewhere.

The overall seats’ tally between rivals shows that the numbers are equalised or offer a win-win situation for both. Of the two municipal committees, Mirza won Badin city to have a greater psychological edge and the PPP got Matli. Of eight town committees where polling was held, four each went to Mirza (Tando Bago, Nindo Shahar, Pangrio and Golarchi) and as many to the PPP (Tando Ghulam Ali, Raju Khananai, Khoski and Kadhan). The ECP postponed polling in Talhar and Kario Ganwar town committees.

An identical trend is seen on constituencies won by rivals in the district council, which has 68 directly contested seats where voters went to the polls for 64 seats. The result of one seat has been withheld. So, out of 63, the PPP bagged 29 seats, the PML-F three, the PML-N two, Arbab Ghulam Rahim one, independents three and the Mirza group 25 if unofficial results are anything to go by. Three independents joined the PPP on Friday, raising its tally to 32. It hopes to get Union Council Daddah.

“It is a temporary dent but, yes, there is a vacuum in Badin and the party will go for the strategy of political rebuilding,” concedes Nafeesa, daughter of the Sindh chief minister. “The leadership believes some invisible forces helped Mirza win seats.” She likens Mirza’s departure from the PPP to that of Z.A. Bhutto’s closest friends, who abandoned his daughter. “When Bibi was leading the party people used to say it was not the real PPP,” she says.

But “it is the PPP which beat the PPP,” comments a PPP diehard.

Published in Dawn, November 22nd, 2015