Three army generals have done their best to crush the Pakistan People's Party, starting with Yahya Khan before the 1970 elections; Zia throughout his malignant, decade-long rule; and now Musharraf.

In the past, the party somehow survived although it lost faint-hearts and opportunists along the way. Some of these turncoats formed splinter groups, while others joined various parties. In both cases, they languish today in well-earned obscurity. Some returned to the fold when the PPP seemed to be within striking distance of power.

But despite its trials and tribulations, the PPP has somehow risen from the ashes like the mythical Phoenix. For its millions of supporters, it is the only party that even talks of the rights of the poor, and of changing the status quo, even though it has travelled a long distance to the right from its clear socialist manifesto embodied in its foundation papers.

Today, there is little ideological content in the party's message, but it is still perceived as the only party to represent the disadvantaged in our society. Since this category includes the poor, the minorities and women, the PPP continues to acquire the highest number of votes in successive elections, despite the best efforts of its rivals supported by the army and the bureaucratic machinery.

It is this seemingly solid vote-bank that Benazir Bhutto appears to be relying on to keep the party intact under the ongoing attempt to split it. Having lost a number of MNAs elected on the PPP ticket in the last election, Ms Bhutto is faced with the very real possibility of seeing her party's parliamentary group at the national and provincial level shrink still further.

To accommodate these turncoats, Musharraf even suspended the anti-defection clause of the Political Parties' Act which would otherwise have unseated them. But the recent defection of senior party stalwarts like Hoti from the NWFP and Zafar Ali Warraich from Punjab have dealt the party serious body blows.

One vulnerability the establishment unfailingly exploits to pressure politicians is their proclivity to use their clout to get loans and then default on them. This milking of financial institutions is fine as long as their party is in power. But once it is out in the cold, they become easy targets for their opponents. Thus, diehard PPP leaders like Sherpao and Faisal Saleh Hayat, both subjects of NAB inquiries, found it expedient to accept lucrative cabinet positions, and escape the anti-corruption dragnet. But the cases linger on, ready to be activated if they step out of line.

But no such cosy deals are on offer for Benazir Bhutto and her incarcerated husband, Asif Zardari. The couple's decision not to appear before a Swiss court considering their appeal against an earlier conviction by a lower court is as close to an admission of guilt as we are likely to get. Even SGS, the Swiss firm accused of paying off Bhutto and Zardari to secure a government contract, is reported to have admitted its guilt and agreed to pay the Pakistan government's legal costs.

However, Ms Bhutto is fighting two separate battles: one in the courts here and abroad, and the other for the continued support of her nationwide constituency. She can lose the first without necessarily losing the second.

Seeing the highly selective nature of Musharraf's accountability process, as well as the clearly unfair treatment meted out to Asif Zardari, her supporters have rallied around, even though they are a silent majority.

What has damaged the party more than the corruption cases against Ms Bhutto and her husband is her long absence from Pakistan.

In a country as turbulent as Pakistan, a political party cannot be run by remote control from London and Dubai. Without firm leadership, the PPP is bound to suffer from more defections as the Musharraf regime continues its carrot-and-stick policy.

Understandably, Ms Bhutto does not relish the prospect of being arrested on her return. She has had more than her share of incarceration during Zia's rule. With her husband already Pakistan's longest-serving political prisoner, she hates the idea of her children being left without either parent to care for them. This is a natural concern, and only a callous person would not sympathize with her dilemma.

But unfortunately, the cauldron of politics in Pakistan does not permit the luxury of these maternal feelings. If she feels that her personal concerns outweigh her political responsibility, then she should disengage completely from the PPP and hand over the reins of leadership. But clearly, she cannot have it both ways.

I have asked my friends at the highest level of the party why they could not demand her resignation in the wake of the many charges of corruption against her and her husband. According to them - and I have no reason to doubt their analysis - the PPP would fragment along provincial lines if it did not have a person of Ms Bhutto's standing at the helm.

Another thing PPP lawyers have assured me (and Ms Bhutto) of is that were she to return, they would have her out of jail on bail within days. Indeed, her return would galvanize the party and electrify the political scene. Had she taken this decision before the last general elections, her party would probably have been the biggest group in Parliament, even if the establishment had blocked it from forming an outright majority.

Now that the various factions of the Muslim League have been cobbled together into a single compliant entity (apart from PML-N), the need for an active opposition is greater than ever. The mullahs of the MMA have their own agenda, but at the end of the day, they will support Musharraf. Indeed, they have traditionally been the army's cheerleaders.

Recently, in an interview on television, the police officer who was inspector-general of Punjab during the 1988 elections made a confession that would have caused a huge scandal elsewhere.

Apparently, intelligence agencies put together the anti-PPP coalition called the IJI, and paid its candidates large amounts of money to run their campaigns. But this has been a recurring pattern in Pakistan, and raised no eyebrows.

Despite the establishment's anti-PPP fixation, the party remains popular among the masses. Benazir Bhutto owes it to them to return, face the music, and redeem herself.