FAISALABAD: The Sahi brothers — MNA Ghulam Rasool Sahi and MPA Afzal Sahi, a former speaker of the Punjab Assembly — have once again ditched the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz.

Ghulam Rasool, MNA from NA-75, now re-numbered as NA-101 (Chak Jhumra), and his younger brother Afzal Sahi, MPA from PP-51, joined the PTI at a meeting with its chief Imran Khan in Islamabad on Thursday. They resigned from their respective seats on Thursday.

In 2008 general elections, Ghulam Rasool Sahi was the PML-Q candidate from NA-75 and Afzal Sahi from PP-52. Ghulam Rasool, however, lost to former district president of the Pakistan Peoples Party Tariq Bajwa by a margin of 15,000 votes .

Seeing the declining popularity of the PML-Q, during the Gen Musharraf rule, the Sahis ditched the Chaudhrys of Gujrat and managed to get place and tickets in the PML-N in the 2013 general elections. However, they failed to get any portfolio as the PML-N leadership kept them at a distance.

Ghulam Rasool defeated PTI candidate Fawad Cheema in 2013 general elections as he obtained 130,300 votes against Cheema’s 49,131.

The PML-N will have to field a new face from NA-101 following the departure of the Sahi brothers.

On the other hand, their induction will create problems for the PTI as the party has a number of probables, including some loyalists, since the last general elections or so.

Jhumra is known due to decades old rivalry between different clans of Jutt and a number of people had become victim of this rivalry. Area people said they were not surprised by the fresh somersault of the Sahi brothers as they had a history of shifting loyalties.

Punjab Law Minister Rana Sanaullah, talking to reporters in Lahore on Thursday, said they knew the Sahis would join the PTI.

Ghulam Rasool was the second MNA from Faisalabad district who left the PML-N to jump on the PTI bandwagon after MNA Nisar Jutt from NA-81.

Published in Dawn, May 18th, 2018