PPP voters and supporters spent a huge amount of money on half-page advertisements in the print media, on banners, and on arranging a public gathering at Karachi’s old airport terminal on Dec 23 to welcome PPP co-chairman Asif Zardari.

He had left the country after making a controversial speech in June 2015 and returned after 18 months of self-exile in Dubai.

Zardari had told the then army chief that he would leave after three years, while he would stay on. Zardari with tainted reputation certainly is not a worthy heir to the Bhutto legacy.

During the five years of his rule, he failed to deliver. He mainly focused on survival and hardly took any steps to change the rotten democratic system.

He hardly did anything to eliminate rampant corruption and solve the problems faced by poor people which the PPP claims to represent.

No matter how much effort Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari puts in to revive the PPP and play to the gallery, as long as Zardari remains at the helm and takes decisions on party policy and strategy, things will not change.

S. T. Hussain

Lahore

Published in Dawn, January 2nd, 2017