KARACHI: Former minister of ports and shipping Nabeel Gabol is trying hard to rejoin the Pakistan Peoples Party, which he left in March 2013 to join the Muttahida Qaumi Movement, sources said on Sunday.

Mr Gabol had already quit the MQM in February last year after resigning from a National Assembly seat (NA-246) from where he was elected in the May 2013 general elections.

His renewed efforts began soon after the arrest of outlawed Peoples Amn Committee chief Uzair Jan Baloch that caused a sudden political vacuum in Lyari, from where Mr Gabol had been winning elections since 1988.

The sources said that the former minister had been sending messages to the PPP leadership, specifically Senior Sindh Minister Nisar Khuhro, but had not been able to get a “positive response”.

Bilawal House spokesman Ijaz Durrani confirmed that “Gabol has approached some senior ministers within the PPP”, but added that “the final decision will come from the office of the chairman and co-chairman of the party”.

Mr Gabol joined the PPP in 1988 and became a member of the Sindh Assembly. Since then, he has been winning elections from the PPP stronghold of Lyari.

Although he took a stance against criminal elements in Lyari, several PPP ministers blamed him for the ensuing chaos and of patronising ‘gangsters’ such as Uzair Baloch, his close aide Rauf Baloch, former Bilawal House security in charge Akram Baloch and Noor Mohammad alias Baba Ladla.

This is cited as a reason for his not being accepted in the PPP, the sources added.

However, Mr Gabol denied all allegations. He told Dawn over the phone from Islamabad that he “spoke against the gangsters when no one else did”.

He added that most of his “fears regarding the PAC were proven right”. He said that he would soon meet PPP Co-Chairman Asif Ali Zardari in Dubai and “discuss matters while sitting across the table”.

When asked whether he was considering a meeting with PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari in Karachi, he added: “I feel it’d be better that I meet Zardari sahib after Ramazan and then approach other party members.”

With Uzair Baloch in custody, the PPP was looking for an alternative in Lyari. At present, splinter groups, formed after the Rangers-led operation was launched in Karachi in September 2013, were getting back together, the sources said, adding that in this scenario, Gabol’s joining the PPP might be a proper shot in the arm that the party needed to get its political act together in the neglected area.

“The Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz can be a perfect alternative in Lyari as it is vying for the empty political slot in Lyari. Its members are putting in a lot of effort in helping residents by arranging football matches, medical drives and by planning to address the chronic issue of power loadshedding in the area in order to attain that position,” the source added.

Published in Dawn, June 20th, 2016