NAWABSHAH, Feb 8: The Pakistan People’s Party suffered a setback in its stronghold of Nawabshah on Friday when Syed Bagh Ali Shah, a leader of the party in the area, left the PPP and joined the Pakistan Muslim League-Functional.

Mr Shah, a former taluka president of the PPP in Nawabshah, was close to the Zardari family and was a covering candidate for President Asif Ali Zardari’s sister Dr Azra Fazal Pechuho in the 2008 elections for a NA seat from Nawabshah.

A diehard worker of the PPP, Mr Shah shunned party activities after the party leadership reportedly ignored him in the 2008 polls.

He was seriously injured in the bomb attack on Benazir Bhutto’s homecoming procession in October 2007 in Karachi.

When the late leader came to Nawabshah in December that year she visited Mr Shah at his residence to inquire after his health.

Meanwhile, a large number of workers belonging to the PPP and some other political parties also announced joining the PML-F.

Prominent among them were Mohammed Sadiq Ootho, Manik Dahiri, Abdul Jalil, Zaheer Arain, Zahid Hussain Chandio, Bilawal Kori, Rao Abid Hussain, Jani Khaskheli, Afzal Umrani and Riaz Khaskheli.