LAHORE, Oct 26: Differences have surfaced between Governor Latif Khosa and his party’s Punjab organisation as he has stopped welcoming them at the Governor’s House any more.

According to sources, the PPP provincial chapter office-bearers and workers have stopped visiting the Governor’s House as they are not given ‘due protocol’.

The differences started when the Governor’s House refused to allow the workers and office-bearers to meet with the governor without ‘prior permission’. Even the party parliamentarians have been asked to follow the ‘new direction’.

The PPP stalwarts in Punjab have reportedly conveyed to the leadership about growing indifference of the governor to the party men, complaining that if this continued the party would suffer in the stronghold of the Sharifs.

“The jialas believe that if they do not have the backing of the Governor’s House then forget about taking on the PML-N in Punjab,” says a PPP leader who requested not to be named.

He said it was unfortunate that the party in Punjab had no support of the governor who only preferred to target the Sharifs without having any coordination with the provincial chapter of the party or the PPP’s parliamentarians in the province.

The growing differences between the Punjab PPP and the governor were witnessed at a Quran Khawani for Begum Nusrat Bhutto at the Governor’s House where not a single main office-bearer was present. The party provincial chapter held a separate event for Quran Khawani.

“The governor believes in solo flight which is harming the party’s cause and benefiting the PML-N,” another PPP leader from Punjab commented.

He said the Governor’s House had become ‘out of bounds’ for PPP workers who now had started criticising Mr Khosa openly in party meetings. “A worker takes pride in visiting the Governor’s House but directing the military secretary not to allow anyone without a prior permission is disheartening.”

He further said: “The PPP was gaining politically during the tenure of Salmaan Taseer but now the workers are feeling `orphaned’ in Punjab in real sense of the word,” a PPP woman worker told Dawn.

She said PML-N chief Nawaz Sharif whom Mr Khosa called his ‘elder brother’ after assuming the charge in January this year must be happy as “the differences are indirectly benefiting the PML-N.”

Khosa’s spokesman Tariq Ismail, however, claims that the Governor’s House is open for everyone. “The governor welcomes all those who want to meet him,” he said.

There have also been complaints of interference of a six-member team of advisers to the governor in the matters of the Governor’s ‘secretariat and house.’