PPP former ticket holders may join ANP and JUI-F

PESHAWAR: A number of former election ticket-holders of Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa may join Awami National Party (ANP) and Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) in the near future, a dissident party leader said.

Being privy to the meetings held with the provincial leaders of both the ANP and JUI-F, he said he too was consulting his likeminded friends to take a joint decision to quit the PPP. Wishing not to be named, he said that a former federal minister and some ticket-holders have already finalized their negotiations with the ANP and JUI-F’s provincial leaders for joining their parties. Appreciating the ANP and JUI-F for concentrating on the reorganization of their respective parties in KP, he maintained that the central and provincial PPP leaders were responsible for the existing state of affairs that had caused disappointment among the ideological party workers.

Referring towards the political activities of both the ANP and JUI-F for motivating their workers and pursuing electables from others parties, he said: “The PPP leaders are issuing mere statements and are busy on Facebook and other social media platforms only.” The ANP provincial president Aimal Wali Khan recently spent several days in different districts in a bid to woo dissidents and mobilize party workers. The MPAs and MNAs of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) are also visible in their respective constituencies.

The Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) for the first time has accelerated its activities outside the Malakand division, including in the newly merged districts but the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) and PPP are content with issuing mere statements. The same is the case with Qaumi Watan Party (QWP), which always remains active and concentrates on strengthening the party structure, organizing small gatherings, holding functions, seminars and big public meetings on different issues.

The central and provincial heads of QWP, Aftab Ahmad Khan Sherpao and his son, Sikandar Hayat Khan Sherpao have managed to keep their party alive despite the disappointing performance of QWP in the 2018 general election. The PPP workers held their central leadership equally responsible for the existing mess, saying that every major political party has established its main offices in vast premises in Peshawar but the PPP just had an office in a small room in the Deans shopping centre in Saddar area.

The ANP has a spacious headquarters – the Bacha Khan Markaz – on the Pajaggi Road, where regular meetings and seminars are held and interaction with party workers takes place. The JUI-F also has its headquarters on the Ring Road near Dilazak Chowk with all the required facilities for any big event. The JI has one of the biggest headquarters on GT Road in Chamkani, where it has a modern library, offices, halls and even accommodation facilities for the visiting workers and leaders.

The QWP has also established Watan Kor in the University Town with the needed facilities. But the PPP and PML-N, which remained in power several times in the past, have no proper offices. The PML-N has an office on University Road near Tambano Chowk in Tehkal where the workers said they seldom meet due to lack of interest of their central and provincial leaders. The sources said that some important PPP leaders and former ticket holders in Peshawar, Malakand, Shangla and Nowshera have finalized negotiations with ANP and JUI-F for joining these parties. They said PPP activists in the southern districts of the province could also part ways with the party and try their luck elsewhere.

Former senator Khanzada Khan of PPP, whose son Zeeshan Khan joined PTI some months ago and was elected as senator, may also quit the PPP. A few PPP dissidents in Upper Dir and Lower Dir districts said they were negotiating with JUI-F due to its growing popularity after the party’s “Azadi March”.