DADU: Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf leader Liaquat Ali Jatoi has accused the party leadership of having sold a Senate ticket to Saifullah Abro for Rs350m. “Abro parachuted into the party recently and managed to clinch the ticket,” he alleged.

Jatoi, who is a former Sindh chief minister, said at a press conference at the residence of PTI Dadu president Sardar Ashiq Ali Zounr on Monday that the decision was simply unjustifiable and an affront to loyal party leaders and workers.

He heaped scorn on Governor House in Karachi which, he said, was at the centre of such decisions. The indulgence in drawing room politics at the supposedly impartial institution was detrimental to PTI’s core interests in Sindh.

He said that a handful of people sitting cosy in their rooms in Karachi were taking highly important decisions without taking into account ground realities, hence their decisions were damaging the party image beyond repair.

‘Governor House is at the centre of such decisions; if not heard, we will decide future course of action on Friday’

He lamented that the PTI leadership grossly neglected party leaders and office-bearers belonging to the interior of Sindh who had remained unconditionally loyal to the party in Senate election.

Jatoi said that he had sent complaints to the party chairman Imran Khan detailing all the issues. If the prime minister did not take notice of their complaints, he would gather PTI leadership of interior Sindh, his supporters and like-minded people in Betto Jatoi village on Feb 26 and take a decision about his future course of action, he warned.

He said that PTI had completely failed to provide any relief to Sindh where the party had been polled 1.5 million votes. They had organised big public gatherings in Sindh before general elections and took the party out of Karachi, he said.

He said that number of his supporters and like-minded people was increasing by each passing day in Sindh.

Jatoi distanced himself from Haleem Adil Sheikh’s allegations levelled against Sindh Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah and his family members and said that Sheikh’s claims carried no weight.

He said that he knew Murad Ali Shah, his late father Syed Abdullah Shah and other family members and he had complete trust that they were not as bad as Sheikh was painting them to be.

He said in answer to a question that when he was chief minister, Hakim Ali Zardari had asked him to take care of his son, Asif Ali Zardari, and he had provided facilities to him in jail at that time.

PTI leadership of interior Sindh had held a meeting with Jatoi in the chair in Hyderabad two days back, which had formed a committee to look into all irritants and prepare a report.

Dada Allah Bux Unnar was made convener of the committee and Sadaqat Ali Jatoi, Syed Zulfiqar Shah, Syed Mumtaz Shah, Mehfooz Ursani, Raja Khan Jakhrani, Mubeen Khan Jatoi, Akbar Bhangwar, Ayub Shar and Gul Mohammad Rind were made members.

Published in Dawn, February 23rd, 2021