ISLAMABAD, Sept 3: People’s Party Parliamentarians (PPP) MNA from Mirpurkhas Syed Qurban Ali Shah, who was issued a show cause notice by the party leadership, has refuted charges of violating party discipline and defended his act of meeting Sindh Chief Minister Dr Arbab Ghulam Rahim.

It may be mentioned that the PPP leadership had taken serious notice of Syed Qurban Ali Shah’s meeting with the Sindh chief minister and joining of the ruling Pakistan Muslim League (PML) by his two sons.

Through the show-cause notice, PPP Secretary-General Raja Pervaiz Ashraf had asked the MNA to explain as to “why did he meet the Sindh chief minister on August 29 in violation of party discipline”.

Through the notice the MNA has been warned that the party would file a “reference for his disqualification” to the National Assembly speaker if he failed to give a satisfactory reply to the show-cause notice.

Talking to Dawn, Syed Qurban Ali Shah regretted the issuance of the show-cause notice to him and said Raja Pervaiz Ashraf should have first contacted him before taking this extreme step. He alleged that the notice had been issued to him because of an “infighting in the party in Sindh”.

He alleged that other party MNAs from Mirpurkhas Nawab Mohammad Yousuf Talpur and Pir Aftab Shah Jillani had misled the party leadership and the secretary-general had issued him the notice at their behest.

The MNA said not even a single candidate from his recommended list was selected by the party to contest the local government elections in 22 union councils of Mirpurkhas.

About his meeting with the Sindh chief minister, Qurban Ali Shah said he had gone there to apprise Dr Arbab Ghulam Rahim about the murderous attack carried on him by some unknown persons. “Why the party leadership did not issue a show-cause notice to Mir Hazar Khan Bijrani (PPP MNA from Jacobabad) when he held a meeting with the prime minister,” he asked. Replying to a question about joining of the PML by his sons, he said when relatives of PPP Sindh President Qaim Ali Shah could join the ruling party then what was wrong in his sons’ decision to join it.

He, however, said it was not the only reason for issuance of the show-cause notice to him. He claimed that he had already informed the party chairperson, Benazir Bhutto, that his sons could be brought back to the PPP.

Qurban Ali Shah categorically stated that he himself had no plan to leave the PPP. He said Benazir Bhutto was his leader and he would continue to follow her directives.

He said he was one of the founding members of the party with late Zulfikar Ali Bhutto. He said today there were several party office-bearers who had not even seen late Bhutto in their lifetime.

Qurban Ali Shah said he was an opposition-minded person and he could not even think of leaving the PPP.