MUCH has been made about the PPP credentials of the newly-appointed governor of Punjab, Salman Taseer. Mr Taseer joined the PPP after the return from exile of Benazir Bhutto. He was not a supporter of the PPP prior to that date, nor is there any evidence to show that he took any stand, positive or otherwise, on Zulfikar Ali Bhutto’s ignominious trial and judicial murder. He remained in the PPP till 1994 but to claim that he was “a jewel of the PPP’s elite” is stretching it a bit too much.

What Mr Taseer did or did not do since 1994 from the political standpoint is not known, nor does it really matter in the present context but one fact cannot be denied and that is that Mr Taseer was a member of the caretaker government appointed by an unconstitutional and illegal president, a government which presided over the brutal assassination of Benazir Bhutto, a government that has yet to explain how and why and on whose orders the crime scene was washed clean of all evidence.

No evidence can also be found of any expression of grief or sorrow that Mr Taseer may have expressed on this darkest of all crimes. In fact, “”"”"”when a friend sent him a text message following the assassination, suggesting that he resign as a measure of respect for a national leader who was once also his leader, Mr Taseer chose to respond through a string of unprintable abuses.”"”"”" That it took him five long months to finally pay homage to Benazir Bhutto and that too at the expense of the taxpayers, does not speak well of him.

There can be no cavil on the right of the PPP leadership to appoint Mr Taseer as the governor, given Mr Taseer’s creden tials vis-a-vis Musharraf perhaps this was but expedient.

That Mr Taseer should claim to be or be painted by others as a PPP stalwart is an insult to the thousands, nay millions of supporters and workers of the PPP and the educated and reasoned activists of the PPP ‘elite’ (the term borrowed) who stood up for ZAB through that farce of a judicial murder, who continued to support Benazir Bhutto and the PPP through thick and thin, who through a reasoned choice continue to fight for the PPP recognising that it is the only national federal liberal political party with grassroots support in the four provinces and that having lost our only national federal liberal political leader it would be a colossal tragedy if we were to break or lose the PPP.

Having said the above, I may add that I have no personal axe to grind against Mr Taseer. I am sure that he is highly educated and a very successful entrepreneur and has ‘earned’ the high (but not so high considering his recent predecessors) office to which he has been elevated.

However, may one ask Mr Taseer how he, being educated and hopefully knowing the constitutional role of the office which he holds, plans to make Punjab a stronghold of the PPP? It is hoped that he does not plan to replicate his mentor’s efforts to make the country a stronghold of the PML (Q).

As for getting Bilawal to win an election from Punjab, it is hoped that should Bilawal decide to enter the electoral fray, he will follow the glorious tradition of his illustrious grandfather and mother and win the hearts and minds of the people of Punjab and not have to depend on gubernatorial offices for securing his victory. AMNA PIRACHA ( Benazir Bhutto’s Close Friend) Islamabad.