LAHORE, Aug 4: While the Pakistan People’s Party has started efforts to ‘bag’ the PML-N’s disgruntled Khosas of Dera Ghazi Khan and Sharifs trying hard to appease them, the Pakistan Tehrik-i-Insaaf appears least interested in embracing the father-son duo from south.
PML-N President Nawaz Sharif has formed a three-member committee to persuade Khosas against leaving the party, while the southerners insist they would only hold talks with the party chief himself.
Meanwhile, President Asif Zardari’s sister Faryal Talpur on Saturday telephoned Zulfiqar Khosa and invited him to join the PPP. Mr Khosa reportedly told her that he would ‘seriously’ consider the offer.
The PPP has also tasked its south Punjab president Makhdoom Shahabuddin and senior vice-president Haider Zaman Qureshi to contact the PML-N dissidents from south, including Khosas, and pave the way for their joining the party (PPP).
The PPP believes that after departure of Javed Hashmi from the PML-N if DG Khan’s political tycoons, along with a few others, too part ways with Sharifs’ party it will be wiped out from south Punjab.
As there has been no serious effort on part of the PML-N to redress the grievances of Khosas, the PPP is of the view that the Bhutto’s party will be their ultimate choice.
As Khosas’ staunch rivals, the Legharis of DG Khan division, are in the PTI, Khosas wont be joining Imran Khan’s party, PPP leaders think. The PTI has so far not shown any interest in even contacting the Khosas.
“We have no plans to contact them (Khosas),” PTI information secretary Shafqat Mahmood told Dawn, hastening to add, “The party has yet to think about it”.
When asked hypothetically about party’s reaction if the Khosas showed interest in joining the PTI, Mr Mahmood said the party could discuss the issue then.
Sources said President Zardari might also take PML-Q leadership into confidence once the Khosas show willingness to join the PPP.
Talking to Dawn, PPP south Punjab senior president Haider Zaman Qureshi said: “We have been in contact with the Khosas since they developed differences with the Sharifs.”
He said unlike the PML-N and PTI, the PPP gave respect to its leaders and workers alike. The Sharifs started feeling threatened from any person in their party who, they thought, could replace them at any stage, he said, citing Javed Hashmi’s case as an example of this phenomenon.
According to Mr Qureshi, if Khosas go for the PPP it will be mutually beneficial.
“The Khosas are seriously pondering joining the PPP as it will be difficult for them to win independently,” Qureshi said, adding this could benefit the PPP too as Khosas had a political clout in the adjoining districts – Layyah, Muzzafarghar and Rajanpur – and the PPP could perform exceptionally well there if they joined hands with it.
Governor Sardar Latif Khosa said the old guards of the PML-N were leaving the party only because of ‘dictatorial’ mindset of its leadership.
The differences between Khosas and Sharifs started surfacing last year over registration of a case against Dost Muhammad Khosa, former Punjab chief minister, for allegedly murdering his actress wife, Sapna. Dost, however, denies the charge. Khosas expected support from the party, that ran the provincial government, that was not there.
Following that, their relations further deteriorated when Dost was reportedly asked to surrender local government ministry. PML-N workers from DG Khan had also complained of being denied jobs.
Dost Khosa resigned from the party membership while his father Sardar Zulfiqar Khosa had also tendered his resignation as senior adviser to the chief minister.
Dost Khosa had also launched a diatribe against Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif in a press conference and demanded that Nawaz Sharif should intervene in the party affairs if he wanted to save it from disintegration.
Taking to the media, Senator Pervez Rashid said PML-N’s efforts were on to convince the Khosas to stay with the party.