THE privileged Bahria Town on the outskirts of Lahore is the place from where Asif Ali Zardari has been conducting his politics for the last few days — betraying containment more than ability and a desire for adventure. He has met a few odd people outside the coterie and there’s some suspense about what he could accomplish, an expectation based on his reputation as master of patchwork. There is little in terms of a direction having been found or cadres discovered or rediscovered.

The most significant ramblings have been away from the close circle, by those who have shown the courage to question PPP politics over and above the manners and etiquette imposed on them by the rules of dynastic politics. Without too much of an effort these ‘dissenters’ can be viewed as the true well-wishers of the party.

They are obviously different from dissenters of the past. They are not like those who had sided with Gen Ziaul Haq all those years back to save their necks. They cannot be compared with the patriots who were overtaken by a desire to rule alongside Gen Pervez Musharraf as the PPP leadership wondered how much and when it could cooperate with him.

The PTI, justifiably, thinks the PPP orchards are ripe for some seasonal plucking.

If these past crossovers were seen to have come in defiance of the party’s justified and justifiable stands, the talk of exodus from the PPP today is primarily, if not solely, sustained by the ‘strange’ politics practised by its leadership. If in the past the less persistent and more impatient cadres left the party, today it is the insistent and eerily patient leadership that is distancing itself from the party.

Ultimately, the PPP dissenters might be lured away to join another party, the PTI being a likely new home for them. For now, however, when a Firdaus Ashiq Awan urges the PPP leadership to review policy she is identified as the party’s friend.

The PPP has been thinking. Its current approach is based on deliberations, with the famed Zardari acumen apparently providing it with finality. Occasionally, there are remarks that betray the various strands of thinking within the party.

In Lahore with Asif Zardari, party stalwart Makhdoon Amin Fahim did last week discuss the possibility of snap polls to resolve the crisis created by the dharnas in Islamabad. Soon afterwards, another prominent PPP leader, former prime minister Raja Pervez Ashraf, also hinted at going to the voters mid-term as the most likely solution to the problem.

Another former prime minister, Yousuf Raza Gilani, is a PPP politician who has managed a balanced path where he has openly criticised the PML-N for creating this PTI-PAT trouble for itself. Gilani, who is said to be quite close to Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, has reasons to complain about the strategy and tactics that Asif Zardari has employed to ensure for himself the illusion of a comfortable cruise, with questionable destination.

When Gilani was ousted as prime minster under a court decree, one theory quite popular among PPP ranks advised shedding the reconciliatory refrain and taking on the more traditional combative mode. That did not happen; Gilani has not only been protesting his sacrifice, he also had his sympathisers and those who thought he had adopted a sounder line in the given circumstances.

In recent times, the ex-prime minister from Multan has had to deal with other fallout linked with his party’s policy of not contesting political space with the PML-N. There is a by-election approaching in his city in which a man, until recently a Gilani lieutenant in southern Punjab, is vying for a National Assembly seat with PTI backing. He is going to take on Javed Hashmi and a PPP candidate.

Gilani’s own local preferences might have had a role in Amir Dogar — until recently an avowed PPP jiyala — choosing to slip over to the camp of the PTI. But this is not just a local case and unlikely to be an isolated one. The alienation that facilitates the PPP man’s defection has taken effect over time, the blame for which should lie with those who control the party nationally.

Bilawal Zardari has in recent times reacted to these undercurrents within the PPP. One of his much-talked about responses was an open letter to the party members, beseeching them to not ditch him. Unfortunately for the young man, his timing was off and his apology coincided with Imran Khan’s scaling of the Minar in Lahore.

The PTI, justifiably, thinks the PPP orchards are ripe for some seasonal plucking. Imran’s associates have leapt at the opportunity, wooing the jiyalas to their camp. The command of this PTI attack on the ‘Zardari party’ rests with Shah Mehmood Qureshi, ex-PPP. The PPP leadership which had chosen to not be overtly perturbed by the PML-N’s doings is now pitted formally against the PTI, which was unavoidable.

However, the unhappy and ignored PPP cadres might have been more willing to resist the PTI onslaught had their leadership been ready to grant them their wish of being vocal and combative against the PML-N. Bilawal is right in thinking that, alternately, they might decide to keep the old opponent and shift to a new party.

Bilawal has since been heard trying to compensate variously — too haphazardly for him to establish a frequency with the people, let alone come up with a message carrying instant appeal. He has said he was sorry and he has been trying to offset the unwanted effects of his own apology, but by and large, he seems to have been assigned to play the aggressive foil to Asif Zardari — just like Shahbaz Sharif has been acting as the loud second fiddle to Nawaz Sharif.

That will not be sufficient for the PPP. The task this time is not to awaken the supporters with an old mixture of cajoling and shouting. The supporters have to be found first.

The writer is Dawn’s resident editor in Lahore.

Published in Dawn, October 10th, 2014