THE last thing that PPP chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari would want is the reputation of a politician who first announces his intentions and then does not carry them out. Unfortunately, that is just the sort of image he is acquiring. Not too long ago, he presented a four-point agenda which was meant to lead to serious consequences for the government if it did not address the PPP’s concerns. Where are those four points now? Mr Bhutto Zardari has moved on to expressing other vows — and forgetting about them too. He joined his father Asif Ali Zardari in making a ‘most important’ announcement on the occasion of his mother’s death anniversary last December. Father and son declared themselves as would-be candidates in by-elections for two National Assembly seats in Sindh which their party members were, of course, ready to vacate for them. But if it appeared then that the election was only a matter of time, this is not how it turned out to be. Mr Bhutto Zardari now explains he is actually waiting for the court ruling on the Panama case to decide if and when he wants to become a parliamentarian.

Is he serious? Tying it up with Panama now does not make sense — the Panama case was still going on when the original announcement about the intentions of the two gentlemen to enter parliament via by-polls was made two months ago. Had they not thought of the ‘linkage’ then? Moreover, the PPP chairman’s remarks regarding the Panama decision highlight another significant point: party leaders may be guilty of thinking too much about what others should be doing instead of doing something on their own. And to top it all, Mr Bhutto Zardari has recalled that there have never been any court verdicts against the Sharifs — this was a reference to a case in which he was not only not a complainant but from which his party chose to maintain a safe distance. All this is just a little difficult to fathom now.

Published in Dawn, March 1st, 2017