Reportage

Journey to the PPP heartland: The People's Party triumphant

by Tony  Cross

Article published on the 2008-05-12 Latest update 2008-05-14 13:45 TU

Abdul Jalil Memon
(photo: Tony Cross)

Thatta, Pakistan, 22 February 2008 (continued)

PPP activists here denounce political familiesas “feudal”, although their party owes much of its influence in Sindh to the fact that PPP leaders own huge landed estates in the province.

Newly-elected Provincial Assembly member Abdul Jaleel Memon comes from a Thatta PPP dynasty.

“My grandfather was elected in 1970 – he was one of the founder-members of the party – and he was elected Provincial Assembly member from this same constituency from which I have been elected,” he explains.

“My father was elected from this constituency. This is our third generation in People’s Party and we are committed to this party.”

Jaleel’s home resembles a feudal court today. Dozens of local men have come to pay their respects. In front of the house, cloth stretched from poles provides shade for visitors, guards and a couple of cars. Inside, the main room is packed with well-wishers, favour-seekers and ingratiators.

Jaleel promises to tackle poverty with industrial development.

“The main problem in Thatta is employment,” he says and promises that his party will revive a project for a 5,000-megawatt power plant, which he claims was planned by the Benazir Bhutto government but shelved by its successor.

Sassi Paleejo
(photo: Tony Cross)

In her large house just outside town, another newly-elected Provincial Assembly member, Sassi Paleejo, is in her element.

Brightly-dressed and weighed down by garlands of flowers, she, too, is holding court in front of dozens of well-wishers. In between greeting visitors and journalists, she boisterously leads the crowd in chants of "Bhutto zinda hai!” and “People’s Party zindabad!”

Her election campaign may have been helped by the Bhutto aura. She was a close friend and political collaborator and, unsurprisingly, remains faithful to her memory.

Paleejo predicts that the first act of the new government will be to ask the UN to investigate the assassination, an idea which seems to have slipped national party leaders’ memories in the aftermath of the election.

She dismisses the idea that the Bhutto family’s dominance of the party is a weakness, especially after Benazir’s death. She describes such dynasties as “kind of a norm in south Asia”, like the Bandaranaike family in Sri Lanka or the Gandhis in India.

Paleejo believes that the PPP will be able to share power with Nawaz Sharif’s PML-N, despite their past rivalry, citing as not very convincing evidence the Alliance for the Restoration of Democracy, an anti-Musharraf front which broke up when the two parties fell out.

The new Provincial Assembly member could yet fall victim to the PML-Q’s penchant for the continuation of politics by judicial means. She is facing terror charges arising from the riots that exploded after Benazir’s assassination.

“They claim that, at a time, I attacked four to five police stations, that I stole their weapons, I was involved in so many different kinds of riots and attacks,” she said. 

Several candidates were charged in Thatta, seriously hampering their campaigns.

“Even during my election campaign, the first thing I used to do was I had to go to the Session Court for a hearing, then I had to rush to Anti-Terrorist Court... and then I had to come back to Thatta and run my election campaign,” explained Paleejo.

But “we believe in democracy, we believe in Benazir Bhutto’s sacrifice. That’s why we won’t let our people down.”