KARACHI: Blaming cricketer-turned-politician Imran Khan for being surrounded by “inexperienced and immature friends”, a Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf lawmaker quit his party to join the Mustafa Kamal-led Pak Sarzameen Party on Friday.

Syed Hafeezuddin is the fifth provincial lawmaker — and the first one belonging to a party other than the Muttahida Qaumi Movement — to have joined the PSP.

Sixty-one-year-old Hafeezuddin, who had previously left the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz to join the PTI, was elected from a Sindh Assembly constituency (PS-93) in Banaras — a Pakhtun-dominated neighbourhood — on a PTI ticket in the May 2013 general elections.

In Aug 2014, an election tribunal declared his election ‘void’ and disqualified him over rigging charges. Later, the apex court reinstated his membership on an appeal filed against the tribunal’s verdict.

Internal rifts

His resignation exposed serious internal rifts between different groups of the PTI that had become the second largest party of Karachi in terms of votes it obtained in the last general elections.

Earlier this month, the PTI suffered a major setback in Karachi when its candidate withdrew himself hours before the NA-245 by-election and joined the MQM.

Speaking at a press conference in Bagh-i-Jinnah, the place where the PSP is going to hold its first public meeting on Sunday, Advocate Hafeezuddin said he had resigned from the PTI and the assembly seat to strengthen the former Karachi mayor-led PSP. He criticised the PTI leadership for failing to pay attention to the metropolis despite having gained enough support from the people.

Mr Hafeezuddin said he worked hard for the PTI in Karachi but Imran Khan, who he said was surrounded by immature and inexperienced people, did nothing for the party and its workers.

It appeared as if the lawmaker was not in favour of the PTI decision to join hands with the Jamaat-i-Islami for the local government polls when he said the party did not field candidates even on those constituencies from where it got thousands of votes in the 2013 general elections.

He also criticised the role of the opposition in the Sindh Assembly and said that they could not do anything except taking salaries and perks.

Referring to the example of Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan who was the mayor of Istanbul before becoming the head of the state, he said that he wanted Mr Kamal to lead the nation like him.

Mr Kamal welcomed Mr Hafeezuddin and said that nobody needed to feel threatened from the PSP. Before him, four MQM lawmakers — Dr Sagheer Ahmed, Iftikhar Alam, Bilqees Mukhtar and Ashfaque Mangi — had quit their seats and joined the PSP.

After Mr Hafeezuddin’s resignation, the number of PTI seats in the Sindh Assembly came down to three.

Published in Dawn, April 23rd, 2016