OKARA, Aug 6: Signs of rift in the ruling PML have become visible as five MPAs, two former elected representatives and a former district council chairman have bid farewell to the party

The ruling Shah Muqeem group has created its new group after the name of the late Mian Muhammad Yasin Khan Wattoo under the leadership of former MPA Malik Muhammad Abbas Khokhar. The Yasin Wattoo group is also keeping former chief minister Mian Manzoor Ahmad Wattoo-led Tameer-i-Watan group at an arm’s length.

The emergence of the third political group represented throughout the district has changed the local political scenario. Although the Yasin Wattoo group claims to have full confidence in the leadership of the PML in the centre as well as in the province, its formation itself is an evidence of the differences between the two groups. The Shah Muqeem group is headed by former provincial minister Syed Afzaal Ali Shah Gillani, the father of Punjab Housing Minister Syed Raza Ali Gillani.

The Yasin Wattoo band comprises five MPAs — Chaudhry Javed Alauddin, Chaudhry Iftikhar Husain Chachar, Rai Farooq Omar Kharal, Malik Nazar Farid Kokhar and Deewan Akhlaq Ahmad. Former MPA Rai Noor Muhammad Kharal, Chaudhry Ziauddin and Muhammad Arif and former district council chairman Mian Moeen Khan Wattoo are also among its founding members.

Also supporting the group are former federal minister Syed Sajjad Haider (also an ex-district nazim) and caretaker of Karmanwala Sharif, Pir Syed Ali Shah Bokhari. The group is not even on friendly terms with the Tameer-i-Watan group whose head Mian Manzoor Ahmad Wattoo, it says, is a “protocol-conscious” personality.

Political analysts see the formation of the new group as the need of the hour and its makers all politically sound and impressive in their respective constituencies but were constantly ignored by the Shah Muqeem group, especially its chief Syed Afzaal Shah.

Afzaal Shah, they say, cashes in on his cordial relations with the Gujrat’s ruling politicians who made an ample demonstration of it during the previous local elections for the slot of district. What happened was that almost all district political bigwigs, including Rao Sikandar Iqbal and Mian Manzoor Ahmad Wattoo, withdrew candidatures of their sons against district nazim Syed Asad Ali Gillani, a nephew of Afzaal Gillani.

Since the previous local elections, the MPAs and other members of the Shah Muqeem group were constantly ignored by Syed Afzaal Shah. Former district council chairman Mian Moeen is said to be the worst victim of this attitude as he had recently been dethroned of the PML presidentship as the group had elevated his (Mian Moeen’s) nephew Mian Zafar Yasin Watto to the office.

Mian Zafar Wattoo is the son of the late Yasin Wattoo and is at odds with his uncle Mian Moeen.

The formation of Yasin Wattoo group has weekend the Shah Muqeem group and especially federal parliamentary secretary and MNA Rao Muhammad Ajmal Khan will suffer a great deal, analysts say.