The Pakistan Peoples Party seems to have conceded ground to Thatta’s Shirazis by accepting them in its fold amid reservations and resentment among hardcore party activists and leaders who have been opposing the Shirazis for a long time.

PPP-Parliamen­tarians president Asif Ali Zardari and his sister Faryal Talpur are believed to have approved the Shirazis’ induction into the party notwithstanding the fact that the Shirazi family had ditched the PPP hours before May 11, 2013 elections after joining the party in October 2012.

“Don’t you remember they got tickets from us and then ditched us at the eleventh hour in 2013?” said a former PPP parliamentarian from lower Sindh. Later, the parliamentarian said, by springing a surprise for the PPP they decided to contest elections as independent candidates and won a few seats, including one National Assembly constituency of Thatta.

Afterwards, they joined the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz and its president Shahbaz Sharif, during his recent visit to Matiari, sounded optimistic when he said that the Shirazis, who had faced victimisation from the ruling PPP in Sindh, would stay with the PML-N.

“Our elders decided to go with the PPP so everyone agreed to it,” said Ayaz Shah Shirazi while talking to Dawn over the phone. He was elected from a National Assembly seat of Thatta in 2013 polls and had served in the PML-N government as minister of state for national food security.

Thatta district now stands bifurcated with Sujawal having emerged as another district in Sindh’s coastal region. Presently, the chairmen of district councils of Sujawal and Thatta come from the PPP who had defeated the otherwise formidable Shirazis in last local bodies elections that proved to be a severe blow to the Shirazis.

The Shirazis have always had a love-hate relationship with the PPP. It was in 1997 when Shafqat Shah Shirazi became MNA from one of the two National Assembly constituencies of Thatta district and then kept switching sides by joining the PML-Q in 2002 and the PML-N in 2008. After getting PPP tickets in 2013, the Shirazis took another somersault and left the party to contest polls as independent candidates, winning one NA seat and losing another to Sadiq Memon, PPP district Thatta president.

“Of course there is resentment among party workers as they have serious reservations over the Shirazis’ entry into the PPP. But then we have to honour the decision of our party... We have been discussing the issue in party meetings and telling the party leadership that we don’t need them now,” said a party activist from Thatta district. He said those who might have been interested in contesting against the Shirazis in upcoming polls must have felt disappointed and might consider other political options.

The Shirazis have been vocal against the PPP’s Sindh government. In the wake of the sugarcane crisis during the Qaim Ali Shah-led Sindh government, a sobbing Aijaz Shah Shirazi, along with Dr Arbab Ghulam Rahim, delivered a hard-hitting speech against Asif Zardari, accusing him of bargaining over Sindh’s permanent interests against the backdrop of the PPP’s plan to establish Zulfikarabad in the coastal strip and its agreement over dual local government system in Sindh as a political deal with the Muttahida Qaumi Movement.

“I don’t have words to express my feelings over their [Shirazis’] joining. They were not in a position this time to face us in the electoral arena, but still our leadership has decided to accept them,” said a PPP leader and former Sindh Assembly member while requesting anonymity.

Senator Sassui Palijo of the PPP is still fighting a legal case over her defeat on PS-85 by Amir Hyder Shah Shirazi in the 2013 elections. After the Shirazis decided to have a solo flight in 2013 polls, the PPP was hard-pressed to opt for less known candidates who gave a tough fight to them.

Until recently the much-talked about Grand Democratic Alliance (GDA), which is poised to enlist the support of electables in Sindh to confront the PPP, was trying to woo the Shirazis like many other families. Former PPP diehards Dr Zulfiqar Mirza and his wife Dr Fahmida Mirza eventually ended up joining the GDA after ending their decades-long association with the PPP.

GDA secretary general Ayaz Latif Palijo believes that that Asif Zardari has gained nothing in the deal with the Shirazis. “Asif Zardari has agreed to share one National Assembly and three provincial assembly seats with the Shirazis in coming elections. This means that an entire district has been given to the Shirazis. This is a win-win situation for them,” he said.

Published in Dawn, June 6th, 2018