KARACHI, May 28: With political temperature on the rise in the country, influential political groups have started gearing up for the contest coming up in the shape of the local government and general elections.

The trend was indicated from meetings of various group leaders to form some sort of alliances to field their joint candidates against the Pakistan Peoples Party and Pakistan Muslim League-N and Muttahida Qaumi Movement.

In this connection, on Monday, leaders of three influential political groups from districts Ghotki, Thatta and Naushero Feroze called on PML-F chief Pir Sibghatullah Shah Rashdi, the Pir Pagara, and closeted with PML-F leadership in order to decide, in principle, to contest the coming elections in the form of an alliance.

According to insiders, in view of the increasing activism of nationalist parties and surfacing of sensitive issues such as carving new provinces and the PPP’s decision to contest the elections with the coordination of coalition partners, the pro-federalist leadership of smaller political parties in the interior of Sindh appeared insecure if left to field for itself on the crest of its influence in the coming elections.

The meeting of Mahar group of Ghotki, Shirazi group of Thatta and Jatoi group of Naushero Feroze led by their respective leaders Sardar Ali Gohar, Shafqat Ali Sheerazi and Ghulam Murtaza Jatoi with PML-F leaders decided in principle to form a lose alliance whose details would be sorted out later on, an insider told Dawn.

The participants at the meeting, which was followed by lunch at the Kingri House included Sardar Ali Gohar Mahar, Ghaus Bakhsh Mahar and Nasir Ali Shah from Mahar group and Shafqat Ali Sheerazi from his own group while from Jatoi group, which also represents National Peoples Party, Ghulam Murtaza Jatoi, Masroor Khan Jatoi and Arif Mustafa Jatoi participated as Pir Pagara, Syed Sadruddin Shah Rashdi and Imtiaz Shaikh held talks from PML-F’s side.