LAHORE, Dec 28: Pakistan Muslim League-N leader Inamullah Khan Niazi with his brother, Abdul Hafeez Niazi, both former MPAs, resigned from the party on Wednesday. They however did not announce joining cousin Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI).
At a press conference, Mr Niazi said they were resigning in protest at a group of conspirators, who had taken over party affairs since the return of Nawaz Sharif from exile in 2007.
Mr Niazi alleged that one of the conspirators was anti-state and working against the very ideology of Pakistan the PML-N championed.
“Who are Lt-Gen Abdul Qadir Baloch, Zahid Hamid and Anushe Rehman? Where have they come from to run the party affairs?” he asked the party leadership.He said the remnants of Musharraf and turncoats were being accepted in the party contrary to the party’s earlier stance that no turncoats would be accepted. He said the conspirators were making their group within the party in every district.
In a reference to the growing say of the Kashmiris (the clan PML-N chief Nawaz Sharif belongs to) in the party, he said that dynastic politics would not gain currency in today’s Pakistan.
“Workers will abandon the party leaving behind ‘Khwajasaras’ (or eunuchs) and Khwajgaan-e-buland baang (the oligarchy with hollow but loud claims).”
He said the party had not been organised in districts for the last three years in the presence of Mr Sharif in the country. The re-organisation process was completed twice in their absence, he said, adding that a certain group was hurdle in the re-organisation process.
He predicted a tremor (defections) in the party in 10 days, saying Javed Hashmi and he were the first drops of rain as the leadership should wait for the “downpour”.
He said though he had no specific complaints against the Sharifs, he had been ignored and humiliated by the party in his home district.
He said he would remain a Muslim League activist until his “constituents” in Mianwali and Bhakkar decided about his political future.
He warned his opponents in the PML that unlike Hashmi he would retort if anyone dared to raise a finger at his character which, he claimed, had been stainless in his 20 years of political career.
About a statement of Punjab Law Minister Rana Sanaullah, he said he should not be asked about the man with “fake moustache” as Rana Sana himself should tell the people how he merited running the show in Punjab. He said he was cousin of Imran Khan by chance but had joined the PML-N by choice.
He said he had warned Nawaz Sharif back in 2006 in London that the biggest threat to the party would be from the rightists, especially Imran Khan. “But the party chief told me that I am over-estimating Imran’s standing,” he said.
