HYDERABAD: Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) is making hectic efforts to bring back two bigwigs of Jamshoro — Dr Sikandar Shoro and Malik Asad Sikandar — to the party fold ahead of the local government elections in Sindh. Negotiations are under way with both the leaders and MPA Malik Asad, who is also chief of his tribe, is believed to have attached some tough conditions for his rejoining the PPP.
Jamshoro district is part of Hyderabad division where the LG elections are to be held in July. Dr Sikandar Shoro, who in 2018 was Sindh PPP’s deputy general secretary, had quit the party over a ticket controversy ahead of the July 2018 general elections. He then decided to contest against Malik Asad Sikandar as an independent candidate in his stronghold — Kotri taluka. Although Dr Shoro lost to Malik Asad, he gave a very tough time to his PPP rival. Malik won the seat by a narrow margin of a little over 3,000 votes amid an electoral controversy on the polling day. Dr Shoro challenged results before the Election Tribunal, headed by a Sindh High Court judge, but the matter is still pending adjudication.
“Our leadership is in touch with Dr Sikandar Shoro to bring him back to the party fold,” confirmed a party source.
Despite having left the party, he surprisingly gave tough time to Malik Asad Sikandar on his turf by running a strong election campaign and then came very close to victory in the 2018 elections.
Dr Sikandar Shoro and Malik Asad Sikandar are rivals but wield almost equal influence
“But this [strong fight] was not without active support of Jam Khan Shoro, his community fellow from Hyderabad district, who wields considerable influence within the Shoro and Birhamani communities,” said the source.
Sikandar Shoro had formed an alliance with Birhamanis, Kambo Khan and Babu Khan of Thana Bula Khan taluka — the ancestral hometown of Malik Asad Sikandar — and this alliance had proved itself effective in Jamshoro district. Even Malik Asad had to go for a vigorous election campaign to defeat his rival. “Aseen inhan khe ghumaye ghumaye mareenda seen,” was Malik’s popular slogan in his electioneering.
Political observers in Kotri believe that Malik wanted Birhamanis to join him informally because he considered them to be too supportive in maintaining his ‘raj’ over close to 90 tribes and sub-tribes. Malik knows the Birhamanis don’t need to switch to PPP along with Dr Sikandar Shoro, they say, adding that Malik wanted Dr Shoro to return to PPP all alone, if he whished so.
But Dr Shoro is said to have sidestepped Malik’s pre-condition.
“I and Birhamanis are part of an alliance. How can I ditch them when they stood with me. Birhamanis can join the party and accept its decision regarding the LG elections. I will also accept the party’s decision for LG polls,” a colleague quoted him as saying but Dr Shoro himself declined to offer any comment.
Dr Sikandar Shoro comes from a family that has long been associated with PPP. His maternal uncle, Siddique Shoro, had maintained his Kotri seat from 1988 to 1993. Malik Asad had fought against PPP in the 2005 party-less LG polls when he was district nazim of Jamshoro.
Malik had fallen out of party’s favour only five years back, in 2017, in the backdrop of a conflict with a known real estate tycoon over land acquisition in some villages as well as merger of Deh Mole and parts of Kohistan with Malir.
Malik had also objected to increasing accommodation being shown to Jam Khan Shoro in his area at that time. Jam Shoro had started calling the shots in administrative affairs of Jamshoro district, where Malik considered to be unbeatable. So, Malik took it as a sign of his political clout being restricted within his very home district.
Dr Shoro has not set any pre-conditions for his rejoining PPP before LG polls. Rather, he is said to be willing to rejoin the party and submit his proposals for LG seats in Jamshoro district. But he seems to be unwilling to leave Birhamanis alone while entering PPP’s fold only for the reason that Malik Asad wants this to happen.
Malik Changez Khan, a relative of Malik Asad, had in 2018 elections contested against PPP’s Gianchand on Thana Bula Khan seat (PS-81) with active support of Birhamanis.
Syed Jalal Mehmood Shah’s Sindh United Party (SUP) was also part of the anti-PPP alliance in Jamshoro. SUP wields influence only in some parts of this district.
Published in Dawn, June 14th, 2022
