MULTAN, Dec 11: The recovery PPP staged in south Punjab in the October-10 election, securing 16 National Assembly seats against none in 1997, has been eclipsed by the wholesale defection.
Eight of the 13 who have so far joined the P-5 belong to the Seraiki belt comprising formerly Multan, Bahawalpur and Dera Ghazi Khan divisions. The defectors are: Malik Niaz Ahmed Jakharr (Layyah), Azhar Ahmed Yousafzai (Vehari), Raza Hayat Hiraj (Khanewal), Noraiz Shakoor (Sahiwal), Raees Muneer and Tanveer Husain Shah (Rahim Yar Khan), Malik Amer Warran (Bahawalpur) and Syed Asad Murtaza Gillani (Multan).
It means that half of the PPP MPs from Seraiki belt have defected to the P-5 while, after the vacation of an NA seat in Bahawalpur by Aitzaz Ahsan (NA-187), now there left only seven PPP MNAs from this area who are outside the P-5.
But the reports are that the ‘power-brokers’ have also succeeded in harnessing PPP MPs Mumtaz Matiana from Bahawalnagar, Qayyum Jatoi from Muzaffargarh and Pir Muhammad Aslam Bodla from Khanewal to listen to their ‘conscience’. Sources in the PPP disclosed that these three would soon join the P-5.
If this happens, the remaining PPP MPs from the Seraiki belt will be party’s prime ministerial candidate Makhdoom Shah Mehmood Qureshi, Mrs Khalida Mohsin Qureshi of Muzaffargarh, Malik Liaquat Dogar of Multan and Zafar Warriach of Rahim Yar Khan.
MNA Liaquat Dogar’s elder brother and former Multan mayor Malik Salahuddin Dogar is in NAB the custody on corruption charges. Reportedly, a top government functionary has offered the Dogars a soft corner for incarcerated Salahuddin if the Dogar MP defects his party. So far, the Dogars are expressing loyalty with the party. While Zafar Warraich was among the PPP MNAs who had attended a meeting of 10 or so MPs held at the Jhang residence of Makhdoom Faisal Saleh Hayat when the forward bloc was taking shape in the early days of government formation after the election.
Except a few people like Nawabzada Nasrullah Khan, Makhdoom Javed Hashmi, Makhdoom Shah Mehmood Qureshi and Syed Yousaf Raza Gillani, the politicians of feudal background in the Seraiki belt have always shown lust for power and this tendency has made them somewhat ‘natural ally’ of the powers-that-be in the country.
When the question was put to some feudal-politicians of the area, they took refuge for their tilt towards the power, saying politics was almost their profession and they had to face a tough competition from rival camps in order to maintain their electoral following especially when the people demanded development in the area. “No one can afford to ignore his voters.” However, the poverty-stricken backward south Punjab speaks volumes about the development claims of the feudals which, according to them, has bound them with the establishment.
Advocate Javed Iqbal Hashmi, a PPP leader from Khanewal, was of the view that the junta followed a two-tier policy to get the desired results from the October-10 elections. In the pre-election phase the NAB-affected people were stopped from seeking party tickets and during the post-election situation the regime had lured leaders with weak links with the party.
About the Hirajs, he said it was clear even before the elections that they would jump on the official bandwagon. “If Pir Aslam Bodla also joins the P-5, it will not be a surprise because Bodla was reluctant to contest as a PPP candidate.
He dispelled the impression that the party leadership could not pick right candidates in south in the absence of its chairperson. “Each and every ticket was allotted by the chairperson herself after interviewing the aspirants through electronic communication while sitting in Dubai.”
Mr Hashmi said he and the divisional coordinator for ticket allocations in Multan, Pir Shujaat Hasnain, had informed Ms Benazir Bhutto about some of her weak choices of candidates, especially in Khanewal, but she did not care.
When contacted, PPP spokesperson in Islamabad Farhatullah Baber said it could be a coincidence that most of the PPP defectors belonged to southern Punjab. He, however, agreed that the feudal politicians of south showed little guts in standing to the governments.
He was, however, full of praise for incarcerated Syed Yousaf Raza Gillani who resigned as vice-chairman of the party on the defection of his nephew MNA Asad Murtaza, accepting the responsibility of ticket allocation by the party to the younger Gillani.