GUJRAT: People’s Party stalwart and former federal minister from Mandi Bahauddin, Nazar Muhammad Gondal, has denied holding a meeting with the PTI chief Imran Khan or immediately leaving the party, but expressed his strong reservations with regard to its “soft policy” towards PML-N, saying it would further hit PPP, particularly in Punjab.

Mr Gondal said this talking to Dawn by phone following media reports of his meeting with Imran Khan. Denying holding any meeting with the PTI chairman, Mr Gondal also termed fake a photo circulating on social media that showed him in the company of Imran Khan, Jahangir Tareen and others as an ex-PPP MNA from Peshawar Noor Alam Khan joined the PTI.

However, he unequivocally expressed his dissatisfaction with what he called PPP’s tilt towards PML-N, saying it had already hit the party across Punjab.

Mr Gondal said earlier the party had suffered a great political loss due to forming a coalition government with the PML-Q and ANP in the past. He added that the PPP would repeat the same mistake if it reconciled with the PML-N which, according to him, had been victimising the party workers.

He said he had raised the matter with the co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari so many times but his apprehensions had never been taken into account. He said Such attitude of the party leadership was forcing him to rethink his future options since he had been doing constituency-based politics and could not afford the “negative vote” the PPP currently had in Punjab, particularly when the general elections were not far away.

“Though I have not decided to leave the PPP right now, I have always done anti-Nawaz Sharif politics and under the current political circumstances, yes the PTI is an option for me,” Mr Gondal said, replying to a query.

When asked about PTI vote bank in his constituency (NA-109 Malakwal, Mandi Bahauddin), he said though the party did not have a huge vote bank there, it also did not have a “negative vote” like the PPP had in the current situation. He said after media reports of his plans to leave the party, Mr Zardari had again held a meeting with him in Karachi where he (Gondal) reiterated his reservations with regard to the party’s “soft policy” towards the PML-N.

Sources say Mr Gondal may formally join the PTI after Eidul Fitr.

Meanwhile, PPP Gujranwala division president Dewan Shamim Akhtar, also from Mandi Bahauddin district, called on Gondal on Wednesday at latter’s Gojra residence and discussed with him the media reports about his possible joining the PTI.

Following the meeting, Dewan Shamim told Dawn that Mr Gondal had assured him he was not leaving the PPP.

Published in Dawn, May 25th, 2017