QUETTA: Former leaders of the Pakistan Muslim League (PML-N) Nawab Sanaullah Zehri and retired Lt Gen Abdul Qadir Baloch will on Sunday (today) formally join the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) along with tribal elders, former provincial ministers and members of the Balochistan Assembly.

They will join the PPP at a public meeting to be attended by party Chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari. Sources in the PPP said that Mr Bhutto-Zardari would reach Quetta on Sunday morning.

Besides Mr Zehri and Gen Baloch, former provincial minister Nawab Mohammad Khan Shahwani (National Party), Sardar Imran Bangulzai (NP), former district nazim of Nasirabad Sardar Changaz Khan Sasoli, Mir Irfan Kurd, former chairman of Khuzdar district council Mir Abdul Rehman Zehri, Mir Ghazi Khan Pindrani (PML-N), former minister retired Col Younis Changizi (PML-Q), Agha Irfan Ahemdzai and former adviser to the CM Kishwar Jattak will join the PPP.

Nawab Sanaullah Zehri and Gen Abdul Qadir Baloch had quit the PML-N along with their supporters after they were not invited to attend a public meeting organised by the Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) on Dec 25 last year.

President of the Balochistan National Party (Mengal) Sardar Akhtar Mengal had threatened to boycott the PDM public meeting if Sardar Zehri was invited at the stage as he had a tribal dispute with him.

Sardar Zehri and Gen Baloch also strongly reacted to PML-N leader Nawaz Sharif’s speech against the army chief and head of the Inter-Services Intelligence during a PDM rally in Gujranwala.

Published in Dawn, August 8th, 2021