PPP CHAIRMAN Bilawal Bhutto Zardari has asked his party workers to prepare for the 2018 general election. He has personally kicked off this preparatory phase with an attack on the PML-N.

The PPP is unhappy about retired Gen Pervez Musharraf’s shift abroad, joining the chorus that it is bent on reminding those at the helm of their vows to make the former military ruler face a fair trial.

There has been a sprinkling of PPP protests where Mr Musharraf’s departure from Pakistan was the topic but which were essentially rallies where Bilawal Bhutto Zardari was trying to gauge the mood of the people as well as get a sense of just how much strength there is in the party ranks at the moment.

This will surely be followed by other causes that the PPP would want to urgently pursue in order to rediscover that elusive route back to where it was one of the two major parties in the country.

The PPP chairman knows his party is not quite the formidable outfit it used to be: he talks more of a rescue attempt when he refers to the lost glory that has to be recaptured. It has been reduced to almost nothingness in major parts of the country outside Sindh.

Even in Sindh it has come under tremendous pressure. Not only has it been criticised severely for its performance in government in the province, it faces a greater burden on account of the issues it is forced to take up with regard to the Rangers’ operation in Karachi.

It is obvious how tough the task is, especially given that it is not as yet certain how much leeway Bilawal Bhutto Zardari will be allowed by his father and other mentors, some of whom he could so happily do without.

Many still wish to see Benazir Bhutto’s son free himself and act as a sovereign. And if that is a complicated course to follow, consider that the first signs of change will come when speeches by the PPP leader mention the future more than the past, however glorious it may have been.

The meeting where he asked party workers to prepare for the 2018 polls was laced with the same recycled ideas; for instance, a ‘permanent’ committee was formed to oversee the death anniversary events of Ms Bhutto and Zulfikar Ali Bhutto. One thing the young heir to the two leaders needs to do is to focus on the future — permanently.

Published in Dawn, March 22nd, 2016