BADIN: Two senior Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) leaders and former members of the National Assembly — Ghulam Ali Khan Nizamani (Badin) and Fakeer Sher Mohammad Bilalani (Tharparkar) — revolted against the top party leadership on Tuesday after being denied tickets.

Mr Nizamani announced his joining of the anti-PPP Grand Democratic Alliance (GDA) and Mr Bilalani vowed to take part in the election as an independent candidate.

Mr Nizamani, who had been elected as an MNA in 2003 and retained his seat in the 2008 polls on PPP tickets and remained with the party through thick and thin, told this reporter over phone that he would be contesting on PS-71 Talhar on a GDA ticket. He said his decision was based on principles.

A close friend of the late PPP-P president Makhdoom Amin Fahim, Mr Nizamani said he never compromised on principles, adding that he remained steadfast and never ditched the PPP through all the trials and tribulations during the military rule of General Pervez Musharraf.

Before his election as an MNA in 2003, Mr Nizamani had twice been elected as the chairman of the Badin district council in the ’80s.

Criticising the “unfair treatment” being meted out to PPP’s old guards, he said the party would lose in both the NA and Sindh Assembly elections.

He said he took the decision to quit PPP after meeting GDA leader Dr Zulfikar Ali Mirza at his Mourjhar farmhouse. More important political figures would be joining the GDA, he said.

He said that an important meeting of the alliance’s local leaders was scheduled for Wednesday (today) at Mourjhar to finalise its candidates from Badin district and evolve a strategy to beat the PPP rivals.

Another PPP leader from Badin, former MNA Sardar Kamal Khan Chang, has already revolted against the party after being denied a ticket.

He has filed his nomination papers for NA-229 and four provincial assembly seats as an independent candidate.

MITHI: Former PPP MNA Fakeer Sher Moham­mad Bilalani on Tuesday announced his decision to quit the party at a press conference at his residence in Mithi.

He said he would contest for PS-56 Islamkot as an independent candidate.

“I have not parted ways with the party but will contest the elections to take on the PPP ticket-holder,” he said.

He said he would easily beat Dr Mahesh Kumar Malani who did not have any vote bank in this constituency as against his [Mr Bilalani’s] great support of various communities.

He said he had informed the top PPP leadership that Dr Malani had lost his support after Mithi was included in PS-56 under fresh delimitation but the PPP leaders appeared not convinced.

Mr Bilalani is among the few political figures who had laid the foundation of PPP in the desert region and commanded great respect in the party for being dear to the slain PPP chairperson Benazir Bhutto.

Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) vice chairman Makh­doom Shah Mehmood Qur­eshi on Monday extended an open invitation to Mr Bilalani to join the party.

Yet another disgruntled PPP leader, Abdul Ghani Khoso, who was denied a party ticket for PS-55, has filed his nomination papers as an independent candidate to take on PPP’s Qasim Siraj Soomro.

Published in Dawn, June 20th, 2018