LAHORE, Oct 31: While new PPP Punjab President Manzoor Ahmad Wattoo has yet to rope in any known political person from other parties, PPP old guard Rana Ikram Rabbani on Wednesday announced joining the PML-N in protest against his (Wattoo) appointment.

“I am the first PPP old worker who is quitting the party to lodge my protest against making Wattoo Punjab president,” Mr Rabbani who hails from Okara district told Dawn. “I have no personal issue with Mr Wattoo, but his appointment shows the PPP leadership does not trust its old workers. Like me a number of other workers especially from Okara are disappointed at the leadership’s choice,” he said.

Rabbani remained opposition leader in the Punjab Assembly in 1990 and a minister in 1993. “There were other issues as well that forced me to quit the PPP, but Wattoo’s was the main one. In the new PPP there is no place for the old workers like me,” he said.

Rabbani said he was not keen on securing a PML-N ticket as he would decide later about contesting the coming election.

“My switching over the party does not have any relation to finding another platform for the next election,” he said.

Mr Wattoo, who also belongs to Okara district, had vowed to address the apprehensions of the PPP angry workers over his appointment. But Rabbani’s goodbye to the PPP in protest against his appointment may not reflect well on him. The PML-Q has already expressed concerns over making him PPP Punjab president.

Mr Rabbani announced his joining after his meeting with Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif at his residence in Model Town.

He said the PPP did nothing for the development and prosperity of the country and the nation during the last four and a half years and pushed it in the darkness of despondencies.