LAHORE: PML-N MPA from PP-206, Khanewal, says there is nothing wrong in meeting Chief Minister Usman Buzdar.

“Being an MPA, I can meet him for the allocation of development funds for my constituency,” he told Dawn on Friday.

He has been issued notice by his party for violation of the party discipline.

“How can be my meeting with the chief minister violation of party’s code of conduct? If I’m a turncoat, they, including Nawaz Sharif, are turncoats too.”

Daha has never been a front-row member of the parties he has been in during his three-decade long political career. In 1986, he was elected unopposed the Khanewal Municipal Committee chairman. In 1991, then chief minister Ghulam Hyder Wyne brought him to the PML-N, enabling him to win the committee chairman election for a second tenure. In the 2000 local bodies elections, Mr Daha won the tehsil nazim (Khanewal) slot. In 2008, he was elected MPA for the first time for PP-214 (Khanewal-III) on a PPP ticket. He was among those suspected MPAs who voted against PPP Senate candidate Aslam Gill. The PML-N rewarded him with election ticket for PP-214 (Khanewal-III) in the 2013 elections. He retained the seat in the 2018 general elections.

Mr Daha recently became a journalist and joined an Urdu daily for Khanewal. A Khanewal-based journalist says Daha openly says a journalist is more powerful than an MPA as the district administration favours them more.

Mr Daha said he had personal relations with Mr Buzdar and his father for they had land in the neighbouring tehsil of Miachannu. “Buzdar’s father-in-law, a real uncle and other relatives too live there. The only association of the Buzdar family with DG Khan is the existence of their tribe there and nothing more,” he asserts.

“So I met teh CM being his family friend. I just met him for the development funds for my constituency and nothing more,” he added. Earlier, he met Prime Minister Imran Khan last year. He says he never concealed anything from the media.

When asked if he would form a forward bloc in the PML-N, he said: “Had I thought about it or made efforts in this regard, I would have formed it months ago. I met PM Khan last year and Buzdar in recent days. But I am still in the PML-N.”

He criticizes Hamza Shahbaz for giving him angry looks in Thursday’s session of the Punjab Assembly.

“They (party leadership) perhaps don’t know about the law that doesn’t forbid me from meeting the CM.”

He, however, declared PTI’s stance on corruption allegations about PML-N and PPP leaders correct. “I’m of the opinion that the PTI is right that both mainstream political parties — the PML-N and the PPP — have destroyed the country,” he said.

He said the PML-N required leadership in Punjab and Shahbaz Sharif should come back immediately to strengthen the party. “Maryam Nawaz too should play and active role in this regard,” he concluded.

Published in Dawn, March 14th, 2020