HYDERABAD: Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) president Makhdoom Amin Fahim feels he and his Sarwari Jamaat are being neglected as there are matters which need attention of the party leadership. But, he said, one thing is for sure that he is not going to leave PPP.

“Many left PPP only to become ‘zero’ and I won’t leave it,” he said while speaking to journalists in his ancestral haveli in Hala in Matiari district on Tuesday.

He was elected from this district in the last general election.

“I have tried my level best to improve things in the party and will keep doing so in future as well,” Fahim told a questioner. He said that he was not only committed with this party of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto and Benazir Bhutto but with their vision as well.

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Makhddom Amin Fahim termed Sarwari Jamaat, of which he is the spiritual head, as integral part of the PPP. But, he said, supporters of his Jamaat are not given due response by elected representatives despite the fact that his Jamaat’s followers voted them across Sindh.

“They (supporters of the Jamaat) are told to go to Makhdoom Amin Fahim when they approach their parliamentarians,” he said. Fahim made it clear that if this situation was not rectified then he would start considering other options available to him.

Fahim told this correspondent that he is holding a meeting of Sarwari Jamaat to consult with its representatives on present situation within the PPP. “But this is an ordinary meeting of my Jamaat as we usually hold it,” he said.

The PPP leader complained that promises made with him were not fulfilled by Chief Minister Syed Qaim Ali Shah and Faryal Talpur. “Our people [of Sarwari Jamaat] are removed from different positions sans reasons,” he said.

Elaborating claims of being neglected by the party, he quoted some instances. In Umerkot, Sardar Shah was preferred over Sami Rajar and then he was told that Rajar would be made party president of district Umerkot, but it was not done.

Likewise, he said, Ghulam Ali Nizamani was not given ticket in Badin for the National Assembly constituency and someone else was preferred. “There has to be a reason why it is being done,” he said.

Fahim recalled that he was not named for the prime ministerial slot (in 2008) although it was agreed but then some other party colleague was chosen. “Yet I got along with PPP,” he said.

Commenting on his recent meeting with former military ruler Gen (retd) Pervez Musharraf, Fahim said it was an informal meeting and there was nothing ‘unusual’ about it.

“It was an ordinary meeting in presence of Raja Saeen (sitting Pir Pagara). Raja Saeen and I are friends and were sitting together when I and he left for meeting with Musharraf,” he remarked. He said that when people sit for 30 minutes or so they do discuss things as well.

Makhdoom Amin Fahim said so many decisions were being taken in the party without consulting him. “I used to meet so many people when Bibi (Benazir Bhutto) was alive and she was aware of it. So there was nothing surprising in that meeting,” he said.

The PPP president is contesting an election petition filed against him by his rival, Abdul Razaq Memon. Memon has questioned Fahim’s election in NA-218, claiming rigging. Fahim’s son Makhdoom Jamiluzzaman, currently a Sindh minister, is also booked in an embezzlement case by the Federal Investigation Authority (FIA).

Amin Fahim remarked that as long as Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif was in power he and his family members would keep facing prosecution. He also said not only his son but some other members of Sindh cabinet don’t have authority.

Ruling out reports of apparent differences between PPP co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari and his son patron-in-chief Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, he said it was visible to the media only.

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