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| Crusade for democracy through autocratic order? | | | Early Times Special Correspondent
Jammu | Dec 31
There can be nothing more ironical than the so- called crusader for democracy, Benazir Bhutto, who is claimed to have got martyrdom for establishment of democracy in her country, should nominate in her will as successor to lead her party, after her death and the party stalwarts bowing to her wish having put the mantle of heading Pakistan Peoples Party on her teenager, 19 year old Oxford student, son Bilawal Bhutto. Since Bilawal is still a minor and would like to carry on his studies in the Oxford University, in a true autocratic order, a regent or three regents have been appointed to run the affairs of the party on his behalf, for him to assume the actual charge after he comes of age.
Benazir Bhutto, who promised to give Pakistan a clean and corruption free democratic government, had in her will nominated her husband Asif Zardari, a person notorious for corrupt practices and nick named Mr. 10, because of his practice of charging 10% commission on all the expenditure incurred on various heads by the government during Benazir Bhutto's tenure as Prime Minister of Pakistan. Zardari has, however, transferred the party's leadership mantle on his minor son while himself becoming the co-chairman of the party and acting as regent for his minor son, along with two loyal and close associates of late Benazir, Abdul Makhdoom Fahim, Deputy leader of PPP and Shah Mohammad Qureshi, both of whom have also been nominated as co-chairmen of the party.
The party, which has decided to fight the elections, scheduled to be held this January 8—until the same are postponed for sometime, as is being hinted at by Parvez Musharraf's establishment—is certain to cash on the sympathy wave for the assassinated leader and the minor son of the martyred leader as well as her husband being the focus of the sympathy, thus the succession in an autocratic order gaining the party electoral dividends, but in the process democratic order has been made the causality. The entire exercise, has in no way raised the stature of the slain leader, who claimed her fight for restoration of democratic order in her country, against the incumbent army dictatorship. The cause for which late Bhutto sacrificed her life and attained martyrdom, has definitely been compromised, with the party endorsing dynastic succession, that too in keeping with the wish of Mrs. Bhutto, claimed to be put in her will.
Dynastic succession in the leaderships of the parties is not unknown here in India, where Nehru Gandhi family has for most of the time donned the leadership of the oldest political party in the country and even in some states, the regional satraps nominate their heirs to lead the parties after them, but nominating the heir as successor in ones will is not known here. However, the roots of democracy having not got any footing in Pakistan, there is no surprise in the way succession issue is generally claimed to have been settled in the Pakistan Peoples Party. Yet, it does not augur well for democratic conventions to be initiated in that country, where the succession in a political party also takes place in an autocratic dynastic order. |
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