LAHORE: PPP stalwart Ashraf Sohna is quitting the party over rifts with the party’s provincial leadership and he is likely to join Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI).

“I have decided to quit the PPP in protest against the policies of Mian Manzoor Wattoo (PPP central Punjab president),” PPP Okara District President Ashraf Sohna told Dawn here on Sunday.

He said Mr Wattoo had distributed important party offices among his cronies and family members.

“The way Mr Wattoo is running the party in Punjab I think there is no place for a Jiyala like me in the PPP,” he said and urged the leadership to take notice of the party affairs in the province.

Mr Sohna, who remained associated with the PPP for about 25 years and was the minister in the PPP-PML-N coalition, said he was quitting the party with ‘a heavy heart’.

To a question about joining Imran Khan’s PTI, he said: “I am weighing the option of joining the PTI but I will take the final decision after consulting my friends and family”.

Manzoor Wattoo, on the other hand, had a different story to tell about Mr Sohna.

“In fact, the PPP Punjab has issued a show-cause notice to Mr Sohna for his contacts with the PTI local leadership. We have removed Mr Sohna from the district presidentship for his contacts with the PTI,” he said.

Mr Wattoo further said Sohna had not raised any issue regarding the appointments in the party.

“No party office has been given to any favourite of mine. Ashraf Sohna is levelling the allegations only to make an excuse to join the PTI, a decision which he will regret in the days to come,” he said, adding the respect he had in the PPP he would wish for in the PTI.

Published in Dawn, June 29th, 2015

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