Ever since it was established nearly 35 years ago, the Pakistan People's Party has attracted many decent, committed people to its fold. But over the years, many have left, disillusioned and dejected; and those who remain do so because there is nowhere for them to go.

In a recent conference in Lahore, Dr Mubashir Hasan, once secretary General of the party and in whose house it was decided by Zulfikar Ali Bhutto and a handful of founding members to form the PPP, said in effect: "I have not left the party; it has left me". This about sums it up for me and many others who had supported the party for years.

For decades, the serious rivalry for power in Pakistan has been between the army, the religious right, the Pakistan Muslim League in all its multiple manifestations and the PPP. Other parties have been either marginal or limited in their ethnic appeal. Out of these four, religious parties are out of the question for me as is the army; the PML is largely a coterie of power-hungry feudals and businessmen who use the name to gain legitimacy while waiting for crumbs to fall from the high table the generals occupy. This leaves only the PPP as a party that is both national and secular, and once had an ideology and stood for certain principles.

While no political party should be forever burdened by an ideology that is no longer relevant, it should not move too far away from its identity. Traditionally, the PPP has been seen as a pro-people party. Unfortunately, there is little now to distinguish it from the PML. Granted it had to shed its socialistic baggage, but in its hunger for power at all cost, it has lost its direction and its soul. While the Labour Party has reinvented itself to come to power in the UK, it has not abandoned its liberal stance or policies. Although Tony Blair is as firm with the trade unions as Margaret Thatcher was, he has not forgotten his core constituency.

The PPP, on the other hand, seems willing to cut any corner and make any deal to come to power. Consider the recent elections as an example. Although it received the highest number of votes, it had the second largest number of seats in the National Assembly. Forget, for a moment, all the chicanery that went on before and during the elections.

During the negotiations that went on to put together a coalition, I understand from somebody who participated that the PPP was offered the chairmanship of the Senate, ten ministerial portfolios and deputy speaker of the assembly. Benazir Bhutto insisted that all corruption cases against her and her husband Asif Zardari be withdrawn, and that she should get guarantees that she would not be arrested if she returned. The government agreed to review all the cases, but asked her to stay abroad for another two years.

Not getting any joy from the PML (Q) that was fronting for the junta, the PPP turned to the religious parties' grouping, the MMA, much to the consternation of its supporters. The thought of the PPP sitting in government with the most reactionary elements in the country made many sympathetic observers gag. But as the MMA could not provide any guarantees about the corruption cases or Benazir Bhutto's return, the talks broke down. In any case, Musharraf and his team had decided that the PML(Q) would be the pivot of the new dispensation and the succession of PPP lotas made the task of coalition-making easy.

But in the entire demeaning process, the PPP had revealed itself as what it has descended to: the 'BB-Asif buchao' party. Granted that the hounding of the couple by both Nawaz Sharif and General Musharraf has been unfair and vindictive, but unfortunately that's what politics in Pakistan is about.

Asif Zardari has been incarcerated for around seven years without a single case against him proved in court. This does not mean he is innocent by any means, but surely he should be out of jail on bail by now.

Nevertheless, a political party with the PPP's track record of honourable, courageous and solitary opposition to military dictatorship should not be reduced to a single-point agenda to get its leader off the hook.

One of the many ironies in the current political scenario is that it is the MMA that is playing the role of torchbearer of democratic values. By attacking the radical constitutional distortions made by Gen Musharaf shortly before the elections, the mullas have become the defenders of the 1973 Constitution as well as the opponents of military rule. The PPP's response, by contrast, has been muted and shifty.

On the major issues of the day, too, it is the MMA that is giving its followers a clear line while the PPP's silence has been deafening by contrast. The impending war on Iraq, surely, is an issue on which there should be public discussion. Although Pakistan can do little to avert the calamity, a debate about our position should be opened.

It would appear that Benazir Bhutto is reluctant to annoy Bush by attacking his hawkish position; at the same time she does not want to antagonize the bulk of the Pakistani public by supporting the anti-Iraq campaign. Caught in a cleft stick, she is avoiding taking a position. Meanwhile, her supporters have been left uncertain and confused.

Indeed, there has been little coherent analysis of the country's many external and internal problems and hardly any solutions spelled out by the PPP, apart from its election slogans. One problem, of course, is that Benazir Bhutto is controlling the party from a distance by phone, fax and e-mail. Reluctant to name a strong leader to take her place for the time she is in self-exile, she has insisted on remote control, much to the party's detriment.

One theory is that she was afraid she would get sidelined if Makhdoom Amin Fahim had succeeded in negotiating his way into the prime-ministerial slot, and deliberately gave him very little leeway in the talks. Whatever the reason, the fact is that she overplayed her hand and fell between two stools, with the PPP neither going into principled opposition, nor gaining a share of power.

As things now stand, if the party leadership cannot sort out the inner contradictions that have surfaced, there is a real danger that the PPP will slide into decay and irrelevance.